Part 2 of For the Emperor. Damn, I thought I'd posted this all at once. Oh well.
Page 141
The wind of our passage ruffled her hair, the window wide open. Well, why not? The glass wasn’t going to stop a las-bolt anyway...
Important later.
Page 141
..the xenoists recognised our truck as an Imperial military model and began to shout abuse.
...
The squad of troopers in the cargo space behind us...
Imperial-style military truck with capacity to carry at least 10 troops, albeit in an open compartment. Plus all the Tau dignitaries (at least two or three.
Page 143
Kasteen was guiding Jurgen with the aid of the tactical net, hoping to avoid the worst of the trouble.
Interesting comment. Part of me think its some sort of GPS/navigational function on the IG tac-net (we know it can transmit more than just audio data as per the Munitorum manual, Gaunt's Ghosts, etc.) but its also possible its just some guy on the other end of the vox with a map giving directions. In context, this novel and the third refer to the tactical net as being part of the regiment's vox network, although in Caves of Ice we learn that starship sensors (and other sensor platforms normally) would also be tied into the tactical net providing data, which lends credence to the former notion.
Page 143
They wore plain fatigues, of a colour I couldn’t quite identify in the yellowish glow, but which looked grey or blue, and light flak armour of an even darker shade..
PDF troops. Note the use of light flak, implying heavier varieties exist.
Page 144
But then no one in the PDF ever really expects to go into combat, unless they make the grade the next time the Guard come recruiting..
Cain's comments on PDF recruitment. The fact its 'recruitment' rather than conscription is amusing, although I expect the Guard would prefer voluntary recruits rather than forcibly taken. Also it reflects on the quality of troopers recruited/conscripted into the Guard, usually.
Page 146
I’d got so used to being around Guardsmen, who accepted my authority without question, that it never even occurred to me that the young lieutenant wouldn’t back down. But I’d reckoned without the PDF’s relative lack of discipline, and the fact that to them a commissar was just another officer in a fancy hat.
We've known of some PDF forces with commissars or at least analogues (Necropolis for example) but this may reflect the differences in role between different Segmentae or even sectors.
In a larger context, this scene involves Cain basically shooting the PDF recruits (young ones at that) because they refuse to follow Cain's orders. It's a potent reminder that as lighthearted and even silly as the Cain series can be, the guy is still a Commissar and there is a hard, even brutal edge to him and to the stories. Indeed, I would even go so far to say that the Cain novels are even more dramatic or 'dark' for the contrasting extremes - you don't really
expect nasty shit in a Cain novel, but its there if you look carefully, and that's what makes it one of the better 40K things.
At the same time, its not pointless grimdark, because Cain is knowingly doing his duty, and regretting it all the while. He's still a human behind the mask even if he is a commissar, and thats what elevates him above the caricatures of the games (something he often makes fun of.)
Page 147
Even as I spoke I was levelling the laspistol. The lieutenant’s eyes widened for a fraction of a second as he began to turn back to us, the glint of vindictive triumph giving way to a momentary panic, and then half his face was gone as I squeezed the trigger.
Cain blows away the PDF officer's face. As I alluded to above, this is one of those Sandy Mitchell 'Hardcore' scenes that reminds us that Cain is in a 40K novel, and despite the lighthearted tone it can be quite dark if it wants to be, and works far better than most novels for the contrast.
Cain even goes on to mention that he's shot countless people and aliens without regret (usually because its them or me.) He's not totally comfortable with deliberate murder, even though its within his rights. I think its that humane aspect which elevates him to an 'exceptional' commissar, rather than a regular old one. Indeed, its less the 'manipulator' angle - all Commissars are manipulators to one degree or another, whether its inspiration/respect or fear they employ - but Cain's added benefit is the human, heroic aspect he brings to it.
Much as with the prior 'face' calc, the numbers are the same (single, maybe double digit kj at least depending on how you look at it.)
Page 148
...the superior marksmanship of the Valhallans blew bloody, self-cauterising craters through heads and body armour. A muffled curse over the vox link told me that one of the troopers had been hit by the ragged return fire, but if she was able to swear like that it couldn’t be all that serious.
...
"Trooper Penlan caught a ricochet. Just minor flash burns."
IG vs PDF. IG lasguns easily penetrate the 'light' flak , while for the Guard a ricochet leaves simply light burns (although whether it hit flak or not, we don't know.) Also note the lasguns cause flash burns, which we know from other sources (most recently 6th edition IG codex.) Note that cauterization does not seem to be total, since there is at least some blood (or the cauterization happens AFTER the hole is made, which may be an indicator of the 'magical' nature of some lasweapons, since most 'reallistic' lasers I've known of are difficult to make cauterize without some sort of heat ray.)
We also get reference to 'bloody, self cauterising' craters through head and flak, we can't calculate the latter, but assuming 10-15 cm of penetrateion through the head, and a 1-2 cm hole and 50-100 J per sq cm 'flash burns' over a 30-95 sq cm surface area we get between 1500-9500 joules for the implied 'cauterization'
Page 152
A couple of rockcrete chunks bounced from the windscreen, leaving small starred impact craters in the armourglass.
The military truck had armourglass windows (40K version of bulletproof glass, I gather). Note the aformention comment that lasfire would penetrate said windows, although we dont know the thickness or properties to say more than that.,
Page 152
To my amazement they complied, falling silent and parting in front of us.
..
..wondered at the degree of influence the tau were able to wield over their supporters and one another.
...
Still a subject of great interest to the Ordo Xenos, although investigation of this phenomenon remains frustratingly difficult.
More comment on Cain and Amberley's additions, reflecting on the Tau's influence with the populations under their control. This has been speculated on elsewhere, but the effect is tangible and its more than just persuasion, although we also know its not psychic.
Page 158
..I made my report to brigade headquarters..
Brigade level forces. We also know of another planet mentioned where they had two divisions earlier. As one earlier codex notes, the IG can use battalion, division, and brigades at need.
Page 163
A commissar, of course, is outside the normal chain of command, so technically I didn’t have to show deference to him or to anyone else, but most of us do our best not to remind the officers around us of the fact. As I like to tell my cadets these days, treat them with respect and they’ll do the same to you.
Cain's comments again reflect the fact that Commissars as a rule (and not just him) are showmen/manipulators/psychologists to some degree or another, although in this context its more with the officers rather than the line troops. Politics is always the ultimate arbiter, even with people with supposedly unlimited authority over others (Commissars, Inquisitors, Arbites, etc...)
Page 165
"Our orders were to reclaim Gravalax for the Imperium, by force of arms if necessary."
...
"However, the sheer size of the tau military presence here changes the situation radically."
"We can still throw them out, my lord general."
...
"We would end up mired in a protracted campaign. Maybe for years," Zyvan cut him off dismissively. "And, to be blunt, I doubt the planet is worth it."
"With respect, lord general, that isn’t your decision to make," the officer persisted. "Our orders are-"
"For me to interpret,"
Its an interesting contrast ot the Taros campaign, isnt it? If Zyvan had been in command there I doubt things would have turned out the way they had with the forces he'd had at their command, and this is actually a highly relevant parallel (scope of forces involved at least, implied importance, etc.)
It also reflects that far away from the central worlds, the people put in charge of forces are left to interpret orders as they best see fit (for good or bad.) In this case its good, as Zyvan is pursuing non-military (diplomatic.) avenues over fighting - which echoes Cain's comments earlier in that same vein, in fact.
It's mentioned that Zyvan took a personal interest in Cain's career later on, which shows that whilst Commissarial authority is technically absolute, politics can alter that.
Page 169
He touched a control stud on the arm of his chair, and the surface of the table lit up from within, proving to be a hololithic display of a size and resolution I’d seldom seen before. If I’d realised...
...
...the image flickered drunkenly in the air before me, finally steadying into decipherability as Zyvan leaned forward and banged the tabletop hard with a clenched fist. He must have spent considerable time with the techpriests, because it functioned perfectly after that, staying sharp and in focus more than half the time.
...
"There’s still fighting going on," I could see a handful of hotspots across the city.
Lord General's hololithic display. In Arcadius terms this is rare, lost technology, which is pretty funny when you consider we're out by the Damocles Gulf (Indeed cain suggests its only notable for its size if anything.) The 'banging hololiths' becomes a running gag in this book and others.
The display is also capable of showing data from other units (PDF, and Guard) - presumably in realitime, as we see it used to keep track of current conflicts within the city.
Page 180
It was by no means unprecedented for a commissar to be given direct command of an adhoc task force when circumstances demanded it, although it was, and is, an extremely rare occurrence. In fact, there is at least one instance on record of a commissar being given overall command of an entire regiment for a period of several years, albeit with the dual rank of colonel to facilitate the paperwork.
I wonder if this is a Ghosts reference?
Page 181
Taking the Chimeras in close was right out, their tracks would be shredded in moments once they entered the rubble,...
The valhallan 597 have at least some Chimeras at this point, but they can't go through artillery-bomb rubble without taking damage.
Page 182
A couple had been to talk to the chaplain, but all in all, they’d held up remarkably well.
The Valhallans have a chaplain, whose role is counselling as well as motivation/zealotry. Not unlike the priest serving alongside the Ghosts.
Page 181
Besides, tanks would have slowed us down, and the key to this operation was speed.
...
"The harder and faster you go in, the better"
The Valhallan 597th know the value of speed.
Page 185-187
The infantry squads were mounted in Chimeras, the two platoon command ones standing out from the rest by virtue of the vox antennae that clustered their upper surfaces.
...
..head of the Sentinel troop, we had all three squadrons with us, which gave us a total of nine walkers.
...
A dozen Chimeras, nine Sentinels, and two Salamanders.
At least part of the Valhallans detachments. At least two Chimera platoons, which is about 1/8-1/10th of the total complment, plus 9 Sentinels, and at least a couple Salamanders.
Page 189
Then I realised it was coming from somewhere ahead of us, inside the line of the PDF cordon marked on the mapslate in front of me.
Cain has a mapslate.
Page 191-192
..another las-bolt caught him in the shoulder.
He fell back, shrieking like a child.
"You’ll be fine," I told him after a cursory glance at the injury. One thing you can say for being shot by a las-bolt is that they cauterise the wound they cause, so at least you won’t bleed to death from a glancing hit, a fact that has saved my own miserable life on a couple of occasions.
...
"I don’t know! Emperor’s blood, it hurts."
Glancing laswound cauterizes, although its debatable whether full on hits do. Its also painful, suggesting that (at least with glancing wounds) its not a particularily serious one (third degree, and I think more serious second degree, destroy the nerves usually.)
Page 193
Unlike the Imperial Guard units Cain was used to fighting with, most Planetary Defence Force troopers on Gravalax weren’t equipped with personal combeads. This lack of contact between individuals outside line of sight of one another partially accounts for the relative lack of co-ordination within a squad, which most Guard veterans disparagingly attributed to poor levels of training and discipline. Of course, most PDF units were inferior to them in this regard, in any case.
Comment again on PDF vs IG training as well as equipping. Cain is used to Ig units with comm beads, suggesting they might be common in some form or another in his region of space. Most (but not all) PDF forces do not have them in this region, although we know of cases where this isn't so (such as in the FFG RPGs.) Also a reflection of the benefits of comm beads in IG tactics.
Page 194
I could see the sparks of muzzle flashes inside the building, and the puff of vaporising rockcrete where other bolts were impacting around the upper windows.
Assuming it vaporizes a 5-20 mm hole (roughly the known diameters of lasguns) in silicon with a single pulse would require at least ~920 joules for a 5mm spot size vaporized. If its 2 cm ~59 kilojoules. In 'blaster' style las terms, a 5mm 900 joule pulse leads to a 2.2 cm deep, 4.4 cm diameter hole in concrete, whilst a 59 kj, 2 cm diameter laspulse would be ~18 cm across and 9 cm deep. Impressive as the latter is, I suspect if these numbers were valid the former is more likely as far as 'blasters' go. If its double digit kj its probably bound to be less efficient.
Page 199
...Jurgen swung the Salamander round, stopping us almost dead. There were five of them, running for their lives,...
Cain saving an Inquisitor's life (guess who!) Indication that the Salamander can carry at least 4-5 people in addition to Cain and Jurgen (although one of them dies before reaching the vehicle so four only is confirmed.
Page 200
..Rakel, whose green dress was now heavily stained with blood, apparently from a chest wound..
We learn later from Amberley she took a lasbolt to the gut, which indicates lasgun wounds can bleed. Whether its a different setting, a different pattern/style, a modification to the weapon, or a reflection that some (at least PDF lasguns) may not completely cauterize - we don't exactly know. Heck the ideas may not even be mutually exclusive.
Page 201
Orelius took a las-bolt to the shoulder, dropping his handgun.
Which suggests he took muscle and/or bone damage, enough that the entire arm was not working properly. We see this confirmed shortly anyhow.
Page 206
Third Platoon was supported by First Sentinel Squadron on the left flank, Fifth Platoon by Second Squadron on the right, leaving Third Squadron with the company command element as a mobile reserve.
Deployment of the Guard forces as outlined before. Note the implied mobility
Page 207
Extracted from Like a Phoenix From the Flames: The Founding of the 597th, by General Jenit Sulla (retired), 097.M42.
Again nearly a century past the 42nd Millenium, and Sulla is still alive. And a published author. Given that the date of the conflict is 931.M41 we're talking about a woman who has lived for nearly 200 years.
PAge 209
A quick study of the tactical slate in the Chimera had shown me that I had an unengaged squad sufficiently close to the most distant of the enemy positions to flank it..
Whether the slate is a piece of equipment mounted inside the Chimera, or if its a hand held dataslate with tactical functions, we dont know. but like the hololith it shows the layout and disposition of forces in the battle, indicating that the Chimera (or the tactical slate) is receiving more than audio transmissions from the Guard units under Sulla's command.
Page 213-214
I indicated Orelius, who had taken out a medkit and was tending to Rakel as best he could with a damaged arm.
Again, the Rogue Trader's injury was to his shoulder, but it apparently inhibited the function/mobility of the whole arm (which again is why he dropped the gun...)
Page 216
..the assessors at the Schola Progenium decided I was commissarial material, and that was that.
...
A decision which, on the face of it, seems remarkably perverse, given Cain’s manifest character flaws. However, it’s a decision his subsequent career triumphantly vindicates. We can only speculate how he would have fared if directed into some other branch of Imperial service, such as the Navy, or, Emperor help us, the Arbites.
Again, its interesting that Cain, an admited manipulator, self serving coward, and general all-around fraud, was assessed as being ideal Commissar material. That tends to suggest once again that Commissars are at their best when they are psychological and manipulators, which is borne out by all the Commissars we've seen in other novels. Except perhaps for Gaunt.
Page 218 - I won't quote the scene, but the little private conversation between Amberley and Cain really sets the scene for their future relationship, and is definitely one of the high points of the novel. You have two people from backgrounds that require public faces that may be vastly different from their personalities - two individuals who are for all intents and purposes expert manipulators and liars. And yet they form a very human bond which remains one of hte high points of the story. At least, for me it does, because Cain and Amberley both do a good job of bucking their respective stereotypes whilst retaining the essential 'dark' of 40K.
Page 222
"The Damocles Gulf."
...
She pointed out the Gravalax system, seemingly alone and isolated on the fringes of Imperial space.
...
"We’re close to the tau border."
...
Several of the neighbouring systems were tagged with blue icons, marking them as tau-held worlds. In fact they almost engulfed our present position, with only a thin chain of friendly yellow beacons connecting us to the welcoming haven of Imperial space.
...
"’If we had to fight a war here, our supply lines would be far too thin for comfort."
...
"Precisely." Zyvan nodded approval, and indicated a couple of choke points. "They could cut us off here, and here with no trouble at all. We’d be blockaded and swallowed up in months. While they could reinforce at their leisure from at least four systems."
"Which is why we’re so desperate to avoid a full-scale war over this miserable mudball," Amberley said. "Keeping it would tie up our naval assets from at least three sectors just to secure our supply lines, and we’d be funnelling Guard and Astartes units in from all over the Segmentum. Putting it bluntly, it’s not worth the effort."
Gravalax's location in the Imperium and the overall military situation. Basically the tau have the advantage (surprise surprise) and the Imperials have a tenuous logistic chain supporting them (Again big shocker.) The interesting thing is how this once again contrasts so sharply with TAros. I mean the situations are very similar (small force at a disadvantage, unreliabile logistics, etc.) and yet Zyvan is demonstrating himself to be far more competent than any of the Taros officers.
An interesting speculation about this whole conflict is that the tau might very well be using Gravalax as bait or a distraction.. .keeping the Imperials occupied with an otherwise minor planet whilst they operate elsewhere (militarily or diplomatically). Of course Amberley (and obviously Zyvan) aren't falling for the biat, again demonstrating they have more brain cells individually than the entire Taros Campaign staff collectively.
It also makes a mockery of that whole 'NEARLY LIMITLESS MANPOWER' BS you hear spouted as IG propoganda. Indeed, both Inquisitor and Lord General, Cain notes, seem willing to let the tau have the planet rather than waste the resources to take it simply for symbolic reasons. Note this does not mean they're willing to just roll over and let the tau win, since that would simply encourage them, they just prefer alternate means to a wasteful military conflict, as we learn.
Page 223-224
"’But we could beat them in the long run," I said, trying not to picture the decades of grinding attrition that would ensue as the overwhelming might of the Imperium met the technosorcery of the tau. It would be the biggest bloodbath since the Sabbat Worlds crusade.
"We could. Eventually."
But but but.. the CODEX. ATTRITION WARFARE! Again Lord General and Inquisitor are not idiots, and they know when the situation goes against them, which makes them smarter than some of the more sillier Forge World campaigns. Its interesting that Cain considers that defeating the tau would encompass the same scale as the Sabbat Worlds Crusade - which basically means a sector-scale conflict involving thousands of ships and billions of troops. Which perhaps gives you an appreciation of the sum total of Tau military strength potentially, even if we assume numerical superiority on the Imperial side (again ATTRITION.)
Bear in midn this once again reinforces also that not all IG officers are attrition-happy morons, no matter what the codexes or rulebooksmay say.
Amberley goes on to note that, once again. the threat of Tyranids grossly outweighs the tau, which is hardly a surprise. (lucky tau.) The Necrons also get mentioned as a currently rising threat, although Amberley gets rather annoyed when Cain and the others go on talking about the Necrons, suggesting the Ordo Xenos is trying its damndest to keep a lid on things.
Page 225
"’A two hundred and seventy-three per cent increase in probable necron contact over the last century," he said. "Only twenty-eight per cent fully confirmed, however."
They've known about the Necrons for over a century, and details are still sketchy.
Page 228
...up until this point it had never occurred to me that there wasn’t an under-city - part and parcel of growing up in a hive, I suppose. You see, most imperial cities are millennia old, each generation building on the remains of the last, leaving a warren of service tunnels and abandoned rooms under the latest level of streets and buildings, often tens, or even hundreds, of metres thick. Mayoh, being so sparsely populated in imperial terms, didn’t have anything like so thick a layer beneath it, but I’d just taken it for granted that it was bound to have the same labyrinth of sewers and walkways below its citizens’ feet as any other urban area I was familiar with.
A bit of commentary on Imperial architecture and urban construction. The chiefly interesting thing is how Cain's description sounds very much like an Imperial Hive as described in other sources (new layers building atop old layers.) Cain's comments could even be taken as further reinforcement of the 'hive-like' nature of most Imperial construction. Of course, given that hive worlds have often been described as arising as a result of all other 'types' of worlds (EG civilised, industrial, etc.) that 'grow' into hive worlds, this is not terribly surprising either,
By extension, this would suggest that a good many worlds are 'hive' worlds. although it would also lean more towards the FFG/novel interpreations of 'hives' more than the 'traditional' one (EG Necromunda or Armageddon style, which would remain relatively rarer.) Still given (for example) the 'billions of hive worlds' comments, this does help make sense of things.
I have to note that this is representative of yet another of those facets of the Cain series - between the glimpses of the urban and civilian life, refrences to popular fiction and TV shows, etc. They're all nice little bits that contribute to the overall suspension of disbelief and help flesh out the universe in a way that is easier for us to relate to despite the GRIMDARK. Indeed, my belief is that the contrast between the grimdark and things we might recognize or be comfortable with heightens the dark by the contrast.
Page 234
Despite my best efforts to arrange their transfer to a penal legion, the Munitorium was proving as slow and obstructive as usual, and didn’t seem the least bit inclined to send a ship all the way out here just to pick up a handful of cannon fodder. Normally, that wouldn’t have been a problem, I’d simply have found space on the next outbound freighter or something, but Gravalax wasn’t exactly the hub of the Segmentum, and even what little shipping there normally was had almost dried up as the political situation deteriorated.
..
..it looked as though we were going to be stuck with the five defaulters until we returned to Imperial space,
comment on the economic (un) importanc of Gravalax, which represents one of those worlds that remains largely outside of Imperial control or contact for long periods of time.
It's also interesting how Cain's comments would seem to imply Gravalax is not apart of 'official' Imperial space.
Page 240
Maybe I could get them transferred to another command, or assigned somewhere relatively harmless after she’d gone. The local PDF could certainly use a professional training cadre to bring them up to scratch once this mess was sorted out..
Some units (or parts of units) get assigned as 'training cadres' to PDFs. Good purpose for garrison regiments rotated out of frontline duty, or depleted regiments. Not sure its something you'd want to do with some of the more idiotic regiments.
Page 243
Five bundles of kit were waiting for them, each one wrapped in a carapace vest with a name stencilled on it..
..
"It fits. Quartermaster must be slipping." It was an axiom among the Guard that kit only came in two sizes - too large and too small.
"I had a word with him."
Carapace vests requisitioned from Valhallan stores. Also a less than flattering comment about IG logistics
Page 244
"Hellguns. Shady!"
...
As a regular line trooper, she was only used to handling a standard-issue lasgun, the more powerful variant normally being reserved for stormtroopers and other special forces.
...
..snapping a powercell home with practiced precision.
...
..Amberley had suggested I replace my battered old laspistol with the handgun version of the heavier weapon.
Inquisitorial authority managed to requieisiton hellweapons from the Valhallan quartermaster as well, although these seem to run on a powerpack. Interesting how its implied that not just storm troopers use them. Other 'special forces' might include examples like grenadier and/or drop troop regiments - we do know the Elysians had at least limited hellgun use as a special weapon for example.
Page 244
I’d grabbed a set of the body armour, though, and wore it now, concealed beneath my uniform greatcoat. It felt a little heavy and uncomfortable, but a lot less so than taking a las-bolt to the chest.
Implying carapace vests can stop lasbolts
Page 245
Sorel sighted along the length of his long-las, and made a minute adjustment to the targeter.
...
..knowing that a sniper gets as attached to his weapon as I was to my old pistol, and that he would have customised it in a dozen subtle ways to improve its accuracy.
Targeter on long las. Also weapon customization, which is
technically violating munitorum regulations.
Page 246
..discarding a couple of ration bars to make room for them.
..
"Better stock up with carbohydrates while you can. You’ll be burning a lot of energy soon enough."
...
She sniffed at the grey fibrous mass, and bit into it cautiously.
IG ration bars, still the finest cuisine that doesn't involve corpse starch.
Page 249
..I subvocalised, switching to the channel Amberley had given me earlier. I hadn’t seen any sign of a bead in her ear, but that didn’t surprise me. For all I knew, she’d disguised it in some way, or was stuffed with augmetics that did the same job.
Subvocalized comm beads and various comments on augmetics. The funny thing is its implied Amberley might actually have some augmetics.
Page 252-253
The driver’s volley of profanity was drowned out by a sudden thunderclap of displaced air as something hit the front of an omnibus right where we’d been a moment before, reducing its entire nose to metallic confetti before raking the length of it, blowing a tangled mass of wreckage, blood and bone out of the back. Before I could see anything more, we were behind the shelter of a building, our hurtling metallic shell gouging lumps out of the walls, our tracks leaving a trail of burst and flattened waste containers in our wake.
...
"Sounds like a railgun.."
...
"Even at that range it could have gutted us like a fish."
Effect of Tau batltesuit railgun.
Page 261
He scrambled up it, worming his way into a gap between the chunks of masonry, and froze, scanning the rubble around us through his magnifying sight.
Sorel's long-las described as having a magnifying sight, which is also its targeter.
Page 262
He had a hellgun like the others, but it was slung across his shoulders. In his hands was the unmistakable bulk of a meltagun, a heavy thermal weapon normally used to give tanks a hard time in close terrain, which was about the only time you stood a chance of getting near enough to use one without being spread across the landscape. Emperor alone knew where he’d got it from,..
Jurgen begins his long relationship with his trusty meltagun. It's worth noting Cain's comments suggest such weapons are uncommon amongst the Valhallans....
Page 264
What looked like a maintenance hatch of some kind had been revealed, bent and twisted by the heat and the pounding it had received from the falling rubble.
...
Kelp nodded, grasped the handle, and pulled, every one of his overdeveloped muscles standing out as he strained against it. After a moment he gasped and let go.
"We’ll need a demo charge to shift that."
Maintenance hatch, on the ground (as we learn) Implied that a demo charge would be needeed to remove it.
Page 264
Jurgen took a step forward, and aimed the melta at it. Kelp and Sorel scrambled back with almost indecent haste...
...
"We just want the hatch open, not the whole building down."
Meltaguns are overkill for this purpose
Page 264
"Velade, Holenbi, front and centre. Five rounds rapid." The twisted metal flashed into vapour under the combined power of the hellgun volley...
...
..staring down into the darkened hole which had opened up at our feet. I aimed my trusty pistol at it, but it was a pointless precaution, anyone waiting in ambush would have been vaporised along with the inspection panel, and anyone outside the hellguns’ area of effect would have been shooting back by now.
My original calcs for this were total vaporization based on a literal interpretation of this scene (like I do with most cain shit, EG the CAves of Ice meltagun) Some people get positively outraged at that because of their own particular views of how energy weapons work, but its hilarious in those 'square peg in round hole' ways. That said, I'll take a less literal approach to the scene as well as the literal.
Assuming a 20-30 kg door and a 70 kg human vaporized, we're talking some 150-200 MJ for the human vaping, and 150-225 MJ for the estimated manhole. Call it 300-400 MJ by that benchmark, which is double digit MJ for 10 shots (5 shots per man.)
Assuming it merely melts through the manhole cover (and ignore the effect on the man) we get 'only' 24-36 MJ, or about 2-4 MJ per shot 'only'.
But if we take it less literally (despit ethe reference to 'vapour' - lets say its just blown to really fine particulate matter.) and the human blows paart. We can figure it out one of several ways.
For one thing blowing apart a human, as per bolter calc is worth roughly one grenade or stick of TNT - or about a megajoule. Alternately, we could use the 400 j per sq cm 'steam explosion flaying flesh from skin' calcs which would give maybe 4-8 MJ (depending on if just one side, or both sides get flayed, and even then its still a little conservative.) Ignoring the manhole cover for a second.. we could figure at least high double digit kj to low triple digit kj, whilst the 'flaying' calcs go into very high kj (possibly even low MJ!)
Assuming you use TNT to blast through the cover, we might figure at least half a kilo to several kilos of TNT at least (just doing an estimate from ADC or Mike's
explosives data page) which again is single digit MJ, and thus tripel digit kj. Combine both person vaped and grating vaped and the yields are even greater.
Lastly we can play around with Luke Campbell's death ray calculator. Assuming a 30-40 cm diamter cover (wide enough to let a person though) and each bolt puts a 10 cm diamter hole through the grate each bolt would contribute perhaps a few hundred kj or so. For 'exploding' a person (depending on how many people, how many shots, and how big a hole you assume) we might figure between 25-100 kj (depends on size of hole greatly.) So at worst we'd be going double if not triple digit kj again for hellguns, per shot.
For a reference point Someone had likened the cover to
this which in all honesty is a glorified manhole cover, and fits just as well as naything else.
It goes without saying that lasguns are, by fluff 2-4 times less powerful than hellguns, so if we know the hellgun's firepower we can approximate lasgun firepower (in this case double digit kj per shot quite likely.)
Page 272
Valhalla has its cavern cities, of course, but they’re quite different to the average hive, with wide open spaces under well-lit roofs of rock and ice.
Valhalla implied to be a sort of Hive world
Page 274
"Rakel was having some kind of seizure, and then she took a las-bolt to the stomach."
Which is peculiar given that before she ws bleeding from the chest, but Cain could have been confused about the exact location (lower chest/upper abdomen maybe.)
Page 275-276
The wounds were too heavy for lasguns, even the hellguns we carried. I’d heard them being fired though, I was sure about that.
...
"It looks like plasma rounds to me."
...
The doubt in his voice told me how unlikely he thought it, though, plasma weapons were big, bulky, and unreliable, and took an age to recharge between shots. You’d have to be mad to arm an entire squad with them.
...
"Plasma pistols, maybe?"
...
Those were even rarer, but suppose someone had found a whole cache of them from the fabled Dark Age of Technology?
Unsurprisingly, hellguns and lasguns are less powerful than plasma weapons. Their effects/wounds are distinctive too. It goes without saying that these aren't Imperial weapons, they're tau plasma weapons. (possibly pulse weapons.)
Plasma pistols and guns seem to be different though in some fashion - power, reliability, or whatever.
Page 276-277
"I’ve got movement!’"
...
Amberley was looking at that bloody auspex again, and the screen was still blank. "I’m getting no human lifesigns at all."
"What about abhuman ones?" I asked, and she shrugged.
"It’s only calibrated for..."
Auspex scanner for lifeforms or bio signs - human ones at least.
Page 282
"Tell that to the PDF!" someone shouts. "Or the civilians they’re butchering!" Donali stares him down.
"They recognise the distinction between us and the local militia," he says. "By their logic, the PDF attacked them first, so they’re fair game, and the civilians merely collateral damage. They can be persuaded that it’s in everyone’s interests to back off, I’m sure."
...
"Tau psychology is very peculiar by human standards. They crave stability, and are terrified at the prospect of any loss of order. In fact, it would be no exaggeration to say that, for them, it’s as disturbing as we would find an eruption of Chaos"
Tau psychology and their view of Gravalax civilians. FOR THE GREATER GOOD.
Page 286
..I decided to stay put behind the nice solid piece of piping I’d found.
..
These were plasma weapons we were facing and even the heavy body armour we were wearing would be all but useless against it.
..
A bolt of incandescent energy burst against the metal piping close to my head, just missing my face with a spray of molten metal
Plasma weapon strikes near Cain's cover. Presumably it strikes on the side or front, although it has apparently more thermal with minimal mechanical/blast effect in this case. These are, of course, tau plasma weapons once again.
Page 288
To understand an enemy, you have to understand how they think, and language, according to the magos of the Ordo Diologus, shapes perception. Accordingly, many inquisitors of the Ordo Xenos take the time to learn the languages of the species they expect to encounter in the course of their duties. Without wishing to appear immodest, I can claim reasonable fluency in the most common forms of the tau and eldar tongues, and communicate quite effectively in orkish (which is not that impressive an accomplishment, to be honest, as this particular ’’language’’ consists largely of gestures and blows to the head.)
Amberley comments on language, xenos language in particular. Aside from the amusing comments about Ork Languages, we learn about the 'Ordo Dialogus' which I presume to be some parallel to the Sororitas order of the same name, perhaps tied to the AdMech, or perhaps to a number of organizations.
Page 292
Although kroot mercenaries are generally associated with the tau, and their homeworld appears to be a tau fiefdom, there have been sufficient reports of kroot fighting alongside other races to raise the possibility that they may not be quite so faithful servants as their patrons appear to believe. It’s not entirely beyond the bounds of possibility that this particular one found employment on a backwater human world somewhere, or, more likely, had been part of a temporary alliance with Imperial forces against a mutual foe
Amberley again about Kroot mercs.
Page 292
Generally rendered into Gothic as ’’pathfinders’’, these are reconnaissance specialists roughly equivalent to Imperial Guard storm-troopers or the forward observers normally attached to an artillery battery.
I'd actually say that Pathfinders are more akin to light infantry like Gaunt's Ghosts or other scout/recon forces, rather than the heavily armed and armoured storm troopers.
Page 295
"I’d rather have those plasma guns on our side than shooting at us." Now I came to look at one close up they were surprisingly compact, no larger than a lasgun, but the amount of firepower they could put out wasn’t to be sniffed at.
Pathfinders, so they have pulse carbines. As compact as lasguns but more powerful
Page 297
..the tau appearing to have some way of seeing in the dark. They certainly had no visible luminators, so I assumed the lenses on the front of their helmets enabled them to see in some way I couldn’t quite comprehend.
Given what we know of tau tech, this is quite likely true.
Page 304
As I led my platoon to our Chimeras, I could see the whole regiment lined up and battle-ready for the first time, and a sight to stir the blood it truly was. Dozens of engines rumbled, and our sentinels formed up alongside us.
It does seem likely that the whole regiment, or at least more than a quarter of it, is mechanized.
Page 306
For the most part, however, they seemed content to watch us through the eyes of their aerial pictcasters, which floated like flying plates above the rooftops or flitted around our vehicles like flies around grox.
Tau aerial surveillance. The notable thing is that Sulla (the Valhallan speaking) recognized them for what they were, suggesting she has some familiarity iwth similar devices (Servo skulls perhaps.) presumably used in Imperial serivce We know that the Damocles Gulf crusade used recon drones of some sort, after all.
PAge 307
The tau took the lead again, which was fine by me, as whatever sensor gear they had inside those odd-shaped helmets of theirs seemed a good deal more reliable than Amberley’s auspex. She’d consulted it a few more times since it had failed to detect our alien companions..
Cain believes Amberley's auspex is inferior ot whatever systems the tau have in their helmets (possibly a lifeform sensor of some kind, given the context. Of course we know Amberleys was configured to detect human lifeforms, so its possible the limitations stem fromthat. Maybe the tau's were calibrated for a more diverse set of readings.)
Page 310-311
"He says he’s picking up life forms ahead, in large quantities," Gorok said quietly, translating the flickering finger signs. The tau all had voxcasters and Emperor knew what else built into their helmets, but their kroot allies had no such aids to communication, and, I was beginning to suspect, would have spurned them if they’d been offered anyway. So they used this peculiar semaphore to pass orders and information silently, in much the same way that Guard units did when the troopers didn’t have individual combeads, or the enemy was so close they might have overheard a verbal transmission.
"How large?" Amberley whispered, taking a final look at the screen of the auspex, which, for once, actually seemed to be displaying some life signs that weren’t ours or the six troopers with us.
We learn again that pathfinders (probably) have some sort of lifeform sensors, and that both Imperial Guard and Tau units use non-verbal hand signals in specific situations, for broadly the same reasons (either one force or another has't got comms, or they can't risk using them in certian situations.)
Page 314
..scanning the chamber through the magnifying optics of his sniper scope.
Again long las has 'magnifying' optics as part of its targeter.
Page 314
In these individuals the taint of the alien was obvious, their skin hardened almost to armour, their jaws wide and filled with fangs, a few sprouted extra limbs, tipped with razor-sharp claws.
Genestealer hybrids. Note the implied durability of their skin, assuming this isn't Cain hyperbole.
Page 317
..raising the long-las and sighting carefully in the direction of the sound. "And this thing’s silenced."
Long las are silenced (somehow) although I doubt it does anything for the visible beam which is liable to give their position away too.
Page 317
"The tau were unaware of this ability of the creatures you call genestealers."
...
"They knew them only as a warrior form of the tyranid overmind..."
The tau did not know of the infiltration and implantation nature of genestealers.
This may (as we learn) cause them problems in the future. Oddly the Kroot do not seem ot know about this either, as they shortly break cover and attack the Genestealers under the mistaken belieft htat possession of Kroot DNA allows them to corrupt without contact, or something. This random attack surprises the tau as well, leading to much hilarity (for the Greater Good)
Page 321
A ragged volley of las-bolts and autogun fire thundered in reply, and one of the tau went down, his armour shredded by multiple impacts.
unknown quantity of autogun/lasfire from Genestealer hybrids downs a pathfinder.
Page 323
..he raised the melta before falling back. The blast of superheated air roared against my face, vaporising the oncoming stealer and chewing a chunk out of the front few ranks.
Melta vapes stealer. ASsuming its literal, we're talking hundreds of MJ to several GJ (given a 300 or so kilo mass for stealers. Assuming its figurative? a 1.9 m (as per IA4) 'stealer about half a metre across would be worth nearly 20,000 sq cm, and at 400 j per sq cm (flaying from steam explosion, remember) you get 8 MJ at least. And thats just for one side, the actual value would be several times that. Nevermind what it does to other creatures.
Page 324
I felt a sudden blow against my chest. I glanced down, a las-bolt had impacted against the borrowed armour beneath my greatcoat, and I blessed the foresight that had impelled me to requisition it.
The carapace Cain requisitioned protects him against a las-bolt.
Page 324
The explosive bolts detonated inside their chitinous shells, blowing their thoraxes to bloody mist.
Bolt pistol wielded by Amberley vs Genestealer purestrains.
Page 331-332
He raised the hellgun, aiming it at my chest. Incredibly, he still didn’t seem to realise that I’d concealed armour there, or he’d have gone for a head shot I’m sure.
Implies IG carapace can resist hellgun fire.
Page 332
The expression on Kelp’s face was almost comical for the half-second or so that he still had one, then he exploded into a small pile of gently steaming offal. I turned to my aide, who was lowering the melta...
Melta boils/blows apart a carapace-armoued human. Given cain is a few meters away, its unliekly this is very.. explosive. Again if we go with flaying calcs at least, we're talking single digit MJ at a minimum, (8 MJ for both sides at least), whilst if the body is mostly, say... boiled (70 kg human at 268 kj per kg) you're looking at maybe 19-20 MJ at least.
Page 336
One young woman, who might have been attractive if it wasn’t for the third arm growing from her right shoulder blade,...
...
...levelled the heavy stubber cradled in her other two hands.
Genestealer hybrid hefting a heavy stubber unaided.
Page 336
Sorel punched a hole through her head with his usual unerring accuracy.
heavy stubber girl got holed through the head. not exploding.
Page 337-338
...her torso armour was scored with las-bolt impacts. Whatever crimes she’d committed aboard the Righteous Wrath, she’d more than atoned for, and the flush of satisfaction I felt at this vindication...
...
Abruptly Trebeck took a bolt to the chest, the explosive tip bursting through her ribcage, spattering the wall next to her with viscera.
Carapace fends off multiple lasbolt impacts, but penetrated by a bolt round. Also, as an aside, this is another one of those 'suddenly grim' situations - one minute Cain is feelig optimistic about things, and then something horrible happens. Poor Trebeck.
Page 339
..a large hole appeared instantly, about a metre across. The wall there was barely the width of my forearm, and I dived through before the sides had even had a chance to cool.
Jurgen blasts a hole thorugh a (brick, presumably) wall. maybe 10-15 cm thick, and a meter across (and maybe 2 m tall.) Its not exactly molten, but I dont think it blows apart either. Assuming a 1000K temp increase for common brick
which is 900-1000 joules per kg*K we get between 600-700 kj per kg Brick has a
density somewher ebetween 1400-2400 kg*m^3 so I'll split the difference at 1900 kg*m^3. call it 380-570 kg of brick affected, for betwen 228-399 MJ. As an order of magnitude figure, call it double to triple digit MJ, possibly higher.
Page 340
"Displacer field. If I take a strong enough hit, it teleports me out of the way." She shrugged. "Most of the time, anyway."
Displacer field. Seems to teleport within a few metres (3-4) of original destination.
Page 345
..a krak missile detonated against the hull of one of the Chimeras ahead of us.
...
It evidently failed to penetrate..
...
..as a number of other missiles followed it...
...
Inevitably, some found their mark, penetrating armour and shattering tracks, bringing several of our Chimeras to a halt..
Chimera vs krak missiles. Seems to be rather resilient, all told.
PAge 345-346
..a glance at my tactical slate was enough to tell me that this was a well-planned operation..
...
Without further thought I dropped back inside the Chimera, where the specialised sensoria and vox equipment would let me direct my subordinates to greater effect..
A bit more on the detection and command and control gear of Command Chimeras at the platoon level. Sensor gear, a tactical slate (which apparently can be read or carried up into the
hatch/cupola, since that's where Sulla rode prior ot the Ambush).
Page 351
"The 'stealer cult has obviously been active here for several generations already. Lucky it’s such a backwater, or the contagion might have spread halfway across the sector by now."
several generations to spread across half a sector (some 100 LY radius or thereabouts) Not blisteringly fast by ftl terms, but its pretty expansive for genestealers.
Page 360
..and a head shot for me, blowing the fellow’s brains out through the back of his skull.
Cain's laspistol blows out the bakc of a guy's skull. At least single digit kj, possibly double digit if we factor in burn damage. ASsuming 3rd degree burns along inside of skull (say a hole throught he skull roughly brain-sized, burn-wise we're at between 15-30 kj for example.)
Page 361
The claws I’d seen tear open Terminator armour as though it were a crusty meat pie were already slicing at her cape when its head exploded, showering her with an unpleasant organic residue, and leaving the body to topple to the floor. I looked up at the gallery again and saw Sorel already seeking a fresh target for his long-las.
Long-las explodes a genestealer's head. given that they are many times bigger than a normla human (300 kg as opposed to 60-80 kg for example) Double digit kj easily, quite possibly triple. (of course this also begs the question of whether or not its using a hotshot pack given differeing sources, but this is quite likely, so head-sploding is perhaps not surprising.)
Page 364
..he jammed the barrel of the melta into the wound I’d cut into its belly. As he pulled the trigger, its entire midsection flashed into steam and foul-smelling offal, it staggered back, its eyes glazing, and swung its head in confusion
Genestealer patricarch has its midsection blasted by Melta. We can't calc the internals per volume, but if it was flash burns over the melta's surface area (we knwo from the brick wall a meter by a meter is fair) we can estimate at least single digit MJ again, but its probably more than that.
Page 373
The bolt exploded against the oversized helmet protecting Jurgen’s head, flinging him backwards in a shower of shattered carapace, but thanks to the Emperor, or sheer good fortune, it hadn’t penetrated this time, the sturdy armour protecting him from Sorel’s grisly fate.
Jurgen's carapace (?) helmet survives bolt impact explosion (fails to penetrate) although it pulverizes and concusses him (they mention he might have had a skull fracture for example.) and he's knocked out.
Page 376
The displacer field, as those of you who’ve used one can no doubt attest, will readily teleport you out of immediate danger. Unfortunately, you rematerialise moving at the same speed and in the same direction as when the field activates,..
Momentum is consereved in teleportation.
Page 390
...peculiar little devils that they are, they don’t seem to value the objective of the fighting purely for itself, the way we do. As best as I can understand it, they reckoned that if we were that determined to pitch into a meat grinder war to hang on to this worthless mudball, we might as well have it. They’d go off and do something more productive until we got bored or complacent or distracted, and come back for it later when we couldn’t put up a decent fight for the place.
...
..Tau tacticians tend to take the long view, withdrawing to regroup whenever they meet stronger resistance than they were expecting, or, as in this case, the situation proves to be more complex than anticipated.
Another Cain/Amberley description of tau tactics, in this case WRT Gravalax. It basically fits with their casualty-sensitive mentality and preference to take things by means other than direct or prolonged conflict, but as noted it also means that if you can bluff them into thinking you're determined (and they can't move you off it through one of their vaunted 'doctrines') they won't push. No endurance, for whatever that's worth.
Page 392
"They’re incredibly rare, about as rare among psykers as psykers are compared to the rest of us."
...
"Blanks are like anti-psykers," she explained. "They can’t be affected by psykers or warp entities. They block telepathic communication. You saw how the patriarch reacted to him."
I suppose this is meant to reflect Jurgen being a Pariah or untouchable, although why Amberley doesn't know the term is beyond me. And then there's the implied 'rare among psykers as psykers are' amongst humanity. Taken one way, that means that blanks are one per ten billion (100,000 x 100,000 as per Faith and Fire's psyker/human ratio) to one in a trillion (1 million x 1 million, which is what HH and 2nd edition fluff on psykers said.) which is rarer than the one in a billion ascribed to Pariahs by most other sources. Ont he other hand, if we go with one in a billion this implies there is one psyker for ever 33,000 or so thousand humans.
Given that, its probably better not to read too much into Amberley's comments (except maybe to lean more towards the Faith and Fire version of an increasingly psychic humanity), or perhaps to reflect that Jurgen might be one of those odd 'pariah-like' beings like from the James Swallow novels (psychic beings with some odd untouchable-like abilities, but still pskyers.)
Page 394
...Ordo Malleus fanatics looking for daemon-fodder for their next crusade
Conxtex is Amberley referring to Jurgen as a blank, indicating that the Malleus makes extensive, even profligate, use of pariahs/blanks/untouchables as anti-Daemon weapons. Given their rarity I suspect they must compete with the Assasinorum for recruits, which perhaps explains why Amberley does not want to reveal Jurgen's abilities or bring him directly into her retinue. It migth also explain the value of Eisenhorn's Distaff and his difficulty in replacing it as well.
Page 394-395
"El’sorath still insists that the world is theirs by right, but they’re agreeing to respect the status quo for the time being. I guess they blinked first."
..
"Besides, they’re spooked by the idea of a hive fleet moving in, even if they don’t want to admit it. They’ve had a few skirmishes with splinter fleets in the last couple of centuries, and they’re under no illusions about what a full-scale invasion would mean."
..
"Hanging on to one small planet doesn’t mean much in the face of that, especially if it would weaken their response to the greater threat."
...
"I’m still not entirely sure those pathfinders. You know."
...
"If they were, then at least it’ll draw the hive fleets down on them instead of us a few generations down the line. And in the meantime, we can exploit the chaos in the tau empire for our own ends."
Final discussion of the tau's departuer from Gravalax, and the Tyranid-based motivations behind it. In that light their unwillingness to risk losses taking/keeping the planet is hardly surprising, especially if (as Amberley notes) doing so would weaken them dramatically against the Tyranids (Echoing the comparisons of Taros.) And to make things even more interesting, the implication that they dont know the full threat of genestealers yet again, and the Imperials didn't bother telling them their own people may be infected. Whether the tau figured this out on their own or had troubles (or even can have torubles) with a genestealer brood is up for debate. Its possible - and its also possible their shorter lifespans (40 years compared to 70-100 for a human) makes it worse - we know from Eldar examples their longer lifespans complicate genestealer infestations.
I'll read more of all of this in depth during my lunch break.
