Had a free moment, decided to start up Ghostmaker.
Ghostmaker is the second novel in the Gaunt's Ghosts series. Like the first, it seems that it was compiled largely from Inferno Short Stories Abnett did. However, unlike the first book, these stories are not really strung together into any coherent, larger story. RAther, they are presented more like an anthology, with little vignette-like story focusing on one (or sometimes several) Ghosts such as Corbec, Mkoll, Larkin, Rawne, etc. Also, unlike the first book, Gaunt is not as prominent as he was (although he's still very much visible.) because the first book was 'his' story. This novel is the Ghost's actual introduction - where we discover the death of their world, where we learn more about many of the characters who at various points play a prominent role in this story.
Each story is very self contained, and focuses on the character, introducing something of their pasts, their motivations, etc. so they become more than just secondary characters. We don't learn about EVERY ghost of course, more will be introduced along the line. That's actually one of the more interesting aspects of the Ghost's series. significant characters can - and will - die, often when you least expect it and in unpredictable manner. Its kind of harsh, and I know I dislike having characters I like die, but in another way it really drives home the 'horrible' nature of war in the 41st Millenium. There are no character shields, no predictions or guarantees for anyone (except perhaps, maybe Gaunt.) Old characters will die, new characters will be introduced, and sometimes even those new characters die. I hate it, and yet I like it, because it adds to the tension and drama of the story, and it makes it feel more 'real' and harsh and even grim.
And for reference purposes, the
Old thread is here
Page 10
His men stood ready in fire-teams, fifteen hundred strong, dressed in the black capes and dull body-armour uniform that was their signature. Some stood at eyeholes in the dyke, guns fixed.
Theere are 1500 Ghosts now (preusmably after first and Only to some extent) and either they always had body armour and we never had it described such (flak cloth or fabric armour perhaps) or they recently acquired it (which also is stealthed like their clothes.)
Page 13
“Strange place this, this Tanith. So they say.” He rubbed his chin. “They say the forests move. Change. The trees apparently… uhm… shift. According to the pilot, you can get lost in the woods in a matter of minutes.”
Sym’s voice dropped to a whisper. “They say it’s a touch of Chaos! Can you believe that? They say Tanith has a touch of Chaos, being this close to the Edge, you see.”
We got intimations of this in 'First and Only', but now its explicitly mentioned that the Ghosts 'talents' for navigating their woods (and the woods themselves) are a result of the Warp. apparently something about being close to the edge of the galaxy is s upposed to be transforming/mutating like that.
PAge 14
..the huge black shadows of the bulk transports, whale-mouths and belly ramps open, squatting in fire-blackened craters of earth, ready to eat up the men and the machines of the new regiments of Tanith. His regiments, he reminded himself, the first Imperial Guard regiments to be founded on this enigmatic, sparsely populated frontier world.
Tanith's 3 regiments are all under Gaunt, and they combine troops as well as vehicles.
Page 15
On either side of him, the rows of three-man tents stretched away in ordered files, and guardsmen in brand new uniforms sat around, cleaning kit, stripping guns, eating, dicing, smoking, sleeping.
Six thousand men, all told, mostly infantry but some artillery and armoured crews, three whole regiments and men of Tanith all.
If you figure one regiment is for artillery and armour you might get 2 infantry of 2500 apiece, and one of 1000 for the vehicles. On the other hand if they're one of each (Artillery, infantry, and armour) then you might have 4000 infantry or so and 1000 or so for the others (as an example.)
As an aside, I suspect this represents one way in which you might get 'combined arms' formations at a founding. If multiple regiments of different types are raised at the same time, especially under a single individual (like Gaunt) you can play the 'mix and match' game more easily with detachments. Heck its fairly interesting that Gaunt as a mere 'colonel' commands 3 regiments. I wonder if its due to his special dual-status that the rules can be more easily bent.
Also if we figure this is a 10% tithe, of the PDF (or equivaelnt) it probably means Tanith's military is somehwere on the order of 60,000. IF they have between 1-10 million (which is 'sparesely populated' by certain Ipmerial definitions) That militia would be between 1/15th and 1/150th the total population numbers.
Page 16
"That’s the job. To serve the Emperor in his wars, over the stars and far away. Best get used to the idea.”
Probably a Sharpe reference, or maybe just a british military one. 'Over the Hills and Far away' is a signature tune of the Richard Sharpe series, particularly the movies.
Page 17
And the troops hadn’t been that impressive either. Pale, dark-haired, undernourished-looking somehow, haggard in plain black fatigues, each with a piebald camo-cloak swept over the shoulder opposite the one to which their lasgun was slung. Not to mention the damn earstuds and hoops, the facial tattoos, the unkempt hair, the lilting, sing-song accents.
..
“They are resolute and cunning,”
..
“Tanith breeds indefatigable men. And our particular strengths are in scouting and stealth. As you might expect on a world whose moving forests blur the topography with bewildering speed, the Tanith have an unerring sense of place and direction. They do not get lost. They perceive what others miss.”
The Tanith troops in appearance and character. Basically Celtic Ninjas, I suppose, if we want to go for broad simple generalizations (which some do. SPACE FEUDALISM 4 EVAH) or maybe just commandos. Either way they are sneaky and wear black. Also we get mention of their 'never get lost' and 'perceive what others miss' feature, which is interesting in light of the rumours pertaining to the nature of the planet and its forests. This actually becomes important in tevery novel - we saw it with Mkoll in First and Only (in the tunnels under Menazoid Epsilon, which were chaos tainted) and in plenty of other cases where warp-oriented stuff is concerned in this book and onwards. It seems that the Tanith too were 'exposed' to Chaos in some fashion and it left a sort of mark on them when it comes to perceptions.
Page 19
“The nearest edge of the warzone is meant to be eighty days from here! How can this be?”
..
“We broke them at Balhaut, but they splintered. Deep intelligence and the scout squadrons suggested they were running scared, but it was always possible that some of their larger components would scatter inwards, looping towards us, rather than running for the back end of the Sabbat Worlds and away.”
The warzone's edge is 'eighty days' from Tanith. We dont know the exact distance except its prtty damn far away, so I'd guess maybe at least 100 LY or so, possibly 200. That still only comes out to a few hundred c. EVen if we go with the 1000 LY implication from the last book, we're still tlaking only a few hundred or a few thousand, which is consistent with Eisenorn and Ravenor. It could be that, with a war in progress and things not stabilized, the region's warp routes are less predictable (and stable/fast.) Further, the widespread turmoil that must be created in the warp by the ongoing conflict (thoughts and emotions remember) are bound to make things even more unpredictable. And of course, it snever straight line.
PAge 19
"On his damn deathbed, Slaydo was quite precise about this! Picket fleets were meant to guard all the warpgates towards territories like Tanith, particularly when we’re still at founding and vulnerable like this! "
Macaroth's impatience basically lead to Tanith being lost, because he left the paths into Tanith undefended. And Gaunt (And the Ghosts, obviousy) are pissed. What's interesting is that they say warp 'gates' here, but I suspect they mean warp routes. Although its possible they control gates/portals of some kind within the system - such would be key strategic assets
PAge 19-20
“An hour ago, our ships in orbit detected a massive enemy armada coming in-system. It is no exaggeration to say that Tanith has just hours of life left to it.”
..
" Half of our force is already stowed in the troop carriers upstairs and the other half is penned in transit. We couldn’t turn them around and get them unlimbered and dug in in under two full days. "
..
"The rest of you: the carrier ships will leave orbit in one hour or at the point of attack, whichever comes first. "
..
“We’re abandoning Tanith?” a Munitorium aide said, disbelief in his thin voice.
“Tanith is already dead. We can die with it, or we can salvage as many fighting men as we can and re-deploy them somewhere they will actually do some good."
and the fateful decision made. We dont know the size or composition of the Chaos fleet, But tanith has 'hours' to live.
At the worst, its less than two days, but the context is strongly a couple hours tops. two days at one AU wouldn't be much, a few gees sustained accel and a few thousand km/s tops. If it were billions of km (10+ AU) we'd be talking tens of gees and 5-6% of c tops. If its 2 hours we're talking over 1200 gees and nearly 14% of c travel speed. 10 AU at that time would be more subjective (high relativity from a good 70-90% of c top speed) but it would be high thousands/low tens of thousands easily (Sabbat Martyr calcs). I'm banking omre on hundreds of gees, mayba few thousand
Page 20
The orbital bombardment blew white-hot holes out of the ancient forests, melted the high walls, splintered the towers, and shattered the paved yards.
Effects of orbital bombardment. Not very planet killing yet.
PAge 21-22
The aide seemed to reach for him, clawing at his tunic. For a second, Gaunt though Sym was trying to pull himself up so that Gaunt could carry him.
Then Sym’s torso exploded in a red mist and Gaunt was thrown back off his feet.
At the head of the stairs, the grotesque shock troops of Chaos bayed and advanced. Sym had seen them over Gaunt’s shoulder, had pulled himself up and round to shield Gaunt with his own body.
Gaunt got to his feet. His first shot burst the horned skull of the nearest beast. His second and third tore apart the body of another. His fourth, fifth and sixth gutted two more and sent them spinning back into their comrades behind on the steps.
We dont know how many shots, and how many troops, but it takes a couple of seconds tops. Probably not much more than a squad, since he shoots 7 of them (at most) before they arrive and he isn't shot in return. Call it between 100-1000 shots. or 2-3 seconds. If we figure a 30x30 cm front and back and 30x20 on both sides of the torso on both sides, 400 j per sq cm to 'blow' apart which is 1.2 MJ. 40x40 and 40x20 would be 4800 sq cm and 1.92 MJ 1200-1920 J at least, and 12-19.2 KJ on the other end.
Alternatley 1 MJ or so for a grenade level damage roughly100 you get between 1-10 KJ that way
Overall call it roughly single/double digit kj per 'bolt' at least, or an implied minimum of 30-50 kw, 40-60 kw, and 64-96 kw respectively sustained. In both cases its quite possibly severla times greater than what I estimate too. double to triple digit kw sustained firepower.
Page 22-23
Left to die, the forests burned.
Gaunt fell against a bulkhead and clawed his way to a porthole. Just like in his dreams — fire, like a flower. Blossoming. Pale, greenish fire, scuttling like it was alive. Eating the world, the whole world.
Ibram Gaunt gazed into his reflection, his own lean, pale, bloody face. Trees, blazing like the heart of a star, rushed past behind his eyes.
Implying the planet burned while Gaunt watched.
Page 23
Three great troop carriers, their ash-grey, crenellated hulls vaulted like monstrous cathedrals, and the long, muscular escort frigate Navarre, spined and blistered with lance weapons and turrets, hooked and angular like a woodwasp, two kilometres long.
Navarre and troopships.
Page 23
Sporadic reports had come in of a thirty-six hour deep-space engagement of capital ships near the Circudus.
36 hr space battle.
Page 23
Gaunt’s ruthless retreat had salvaged three and a half thousand fighting men, just over half of the Tanith regiments, and most of their equipment.
Initial composition of Tanith force.
Page 24
He looked across the cabin and saw his own reflection in the vast bay port. Two metres twenty of solid bone and sinew, the narrow, dangerous face that so well matched his name, the cropped blond hair.
Gaunt. Abnett loves tall people in his novels.
Page 25
One was tall, taller and older than Gaunt and built heavily, if a little paunchy. His arms were like hams and were decorated with blue spirals. His beard was shaggy, and his eyes might once have twinkled.
Corbec is even taller than Gaunt. considering Bragg dwarfs him, that makes you wonder just how huge
he is. Shit like this can make you believe Tanith has some sort of chaos mutating aspect to it. Corbec is, like Gaunt, more of a 'background' character usually in these stories, he features fairly significantly in all of them, but has no one story signature to him (the way RAwne, Caffran, Bragg, Dorden or Larkin do.)
Page 25
“Our world died, Colonel-Commissar Gaunt,” Corbec said, the title bringing Gaunt’s head up sharp. “We saw it flame out from the windows of our transports. You should have let us stand and fight. We would have died for Tanith.”
Tanith was apparently destroyed as they watch. That implies a matter of hours (which consistent with above) Assuming 1e9 megatons again and 100 ships in a 8 hour (or less) timeframe, is 347 megatons per second on average. If it was 10 ships and 2 hours, we're talking 13.9 Gigatons/second. Call it roughly megaton to gigaton range firepower, again.
Page 27-29
The men looked like world-killers in their ornate battledress: crested, enamelled scarlet and silver warsuits built by the artisans of Sloka to inspire terror in the enemy.
..
"Suggested you might need a covert scouting force seeing as how your boys’ scarlet armour stands out like a baboon’s arse.”
..
" The Tanith are light infantry, you’re armoured and heavy. Let us lead through and then follow us in support when we’ve secured a beachhead. Bring up some support weapons.”
10th Royal sloka. Like the Jantine and the Volpone they seem to have full body rigid armour of some kind (at least thats what I infer 'heavily armoured' and 'warsuit' to mean.)
Page 29
Thoren waved up an aide who flipped up a map-projector, and displayed a fuzzy image of the deadzone.
Map projector
Page 31
Gaunt blasted with his bolter, blowing two cultists apart and destroying a doorway.
bolter again.
Page 31
A little further on, a huge man, a gentle giant called Bragg, was shouldering the heavy bolter and taking down walls and columns. The big weapon had originally been pintle-mounted on a sled, but Bragg had torn it off its mount and slung it up like a rifle. Gaunt had never seen a heavy bolter carried by an unarmoured man before. The Tanith called Bragg “Try Again” Bragg. He was a terrible shot, admittedly, but with firepower like that he could afford to be sloppy.
Bragg, wielding a pintle mounted heavy bolter like a rifle. another reason to believe the Tanith might have some warp influence to them.
Page 32
Forgal began to crawl forward. A lucky shot vaporised the top of his head.
We dont know what the weapon is, but its either a projectile or lasweapon perhaps, single digit kj if so. Unless its literally vaping, then it could be MJ.
Page 35
As a commissar, a political officer, charged with morale and propaganda, he could turn a good, pompous phrase. But as a colonel, he felt a duty of truth to his men. And the truth was, he knew little of what to expect. It would be bitter, he knew that much, though the commissar part of him spared the men that thought. Gaunt spoke of courage and glory in general, uplifting terms, talking softly and firmly as his mentor, Commissar-General Oktar, had taught him all those years ago when he was just a raw cadet with the Hyrkans. “Save the yelling and screaming for battle, Ibram. Before that comes, build their morale with gentle encouragement. Make it look like you haven’t a care in the world.”
Gaunt is tied between his dual roles, a conflict which becomes prominent (for himself and others) as the series progresses. Indeed many believe (not without reason) that his association with the Tanith colours his perceptions, which leads to the assignment of Hark later in the series. In any case it shows Gaunt's leadership qualities and his roles as a commissar to good effect agian.
Page 36
Gaunt prided himself on knowing not only the names of all his men, but a little about each of them too. A private joke here, a common interest there. Oktar’s way, tried and tested, Emperor rest his soul these long years. Gaunt tried to memorise each muddy, smiling face as he passed along. He knew his soul would be damned the day he was told Trooper so-and-so had fallen and he couldn’t bring the man’s face to mind. “The dead will always haunt you,” Oktar had told him, “so make certain the ghosts are friendly.”
Gaunt again on his commissarial roles. Very much of the 'lead and inspire' camp like Cain rather than the 'shoot and terorrize'. It's another one of those 'balance' things that really make the story enjoyable.
Page 37
Almost twice a man’s height, frighteningly broad, armour the colour of rusty blood, crested by recurve brass antlers. The face was a graven death’s head. Daemon. Chaos Warrior. World Eater.
World eater CSM. Given the comparison (assuming its literal) the dude must be 3-3.5 metres tall.
Page 38
...the ten-vehicle forward portion of a heavy column of eighty flame-and-feather painted Basilisk tanks of the “Serpents”, the Ketzok 17th Armoured Regiment, sent in to support the frontal push of the Royal Volpone 50th, the so-called “Bluebloods”. The Ketzok had the firepower to flatten a city, but caught on a strangled trackway
Size and firepowe rof an artillery regiment. Assuming they carry 40 rounds apiece and 5x that number in reloads (16,000 rounds) and we assume a 10 km diameter city, I figure its around a 150-200 m diameter 'blast area' If twice that number (32,000 rounds) it would be 100 m or so. Just at a guess I'd wager several hundred to several thousand kilos of TNT apiecem as an order of magnitude estimate (Even if its 10x less than I noted, its more imrepssive) based on estimated blast radius. Casualty/kill radius (100/50 metres) is roughly simialr for a 155mm shell, which probably roughly correlates. Even assuming 1000 shells per gun (lets call it 100,000 just to be generous) thats still a 30-40 m kill radius at least. We'd be talking 10-20 kg of TNT per shell probably. Considering a Basilisk weighs some 20-38 kg it wouldn't be impossible as the bare minimum.
Page 39
..he cranked round the autocannon mounted on his vehicle’s rear and angled it at the nearest monster.
..
..Ortiz trained his mounted gun on the World Eater and fired. He shot long at first, but corrected before the monster could turn. The creature didn’t seem to feel the first hits. Ortiz clenched the trigger and streamed the heavy tracer fire at the red spectre. At last the figure shuddered, convulsed and then blew apart.
Ortiz cursed. The World Eaters soaked up the sort of punishment that would kill a Leman Russ. He realised his ammo drum was almost empty.
Giant monster World Eater mutants seem to absorb Dreadnought/Terminator level punishments (IF we assume they're literally comparable to a Leman Russ, given their berserker naturea nd obvious size/mass mutations thats not improbable.) Apparently also an autocannon fo unknown calibre, expending nearly all its ammo, can take out a Leman Russ as well.
Page 40
The blow didn’t fall. The monster rocked, two or three times, swayed for a moment. And exploded.
Rocket laucnher (or several) seem to blow apart a giant world Eater. Probably many times greater evne than the firepower to take out a normal CSM.
Page 40
Another was flamed repeatedly as he ripped apart the wreck of a Basilisk with his steel hands. The flames touched off the tank’s magazine and the marine was incinerated with his victims. His hideous roar lingered long after the white-hot flames had consumed him.
Basiliks tank ammo incinerates crew and one of hte CSM.s It seems likely literal incineration given the 'consume' bit. with crew of 4 and say a 250 kg Space Marine we're talking maybe 500 or so kg burnt Assuming water boiled away at least (268 kj to 2.5 MJ) that would be 138 MJ to 1.25 GJ. Assuming 40 shells (again)1 that would be at least 3.5 MJ to 32 MJ per shell, at least.
Page 40
..he remaining World Eaters died. One was punctured dozens of times by lasgun fire and fell face down into the mire.
Dozens of Lasgun shots take down super-world Eater. Space MArines can be killed by sustained lasfire under the right circumstances. heck you'd only need a squad (or just a fireteam) on full auto to probably do it in a few seconds, tops. A single clip could probably do it too.
Page 41
He was nearly two and half metres tall and arrogantly powerful, with the big, blunt, bland features and languid, hooded eyes of the aristocracy. Gilbear wore the grey and gold uniform of the Royal Volpone 50th, the so-called Bluebloods..
Gilbear, volpone Major. Another Space-Marine sized person. I told you Abnett likes tall fuckers.
Page 41-42
Outside, on the lawn, a squad of Blueblood elite in full battle dress were executing a precision synchronised drill with chainswords.
'elite' bluebloods, probably storm troopers, practicing with chainswords.
Page 42-43
“Our beloved overlord does not look kindly on the favourites of his predecessor. Especially as Slaydo granted Gaunt and a handful of others the settlement rights of the first world they conquered. He and his Tanith rabble are an embarrassment to the new regime. But that serves us well. They will fight hard because they have everything to prove, and everything to win.”
Crusade politics. Given Gaunt loyally served MAcaroth in First and Only, this seems like poor reward. But then again the New Warmaster will have his own priorities and shit. Such is politics.
PAge 43
His men were riding on the flanks of the great war machines, a dozen or more per vehicle, joking with the Serpent crews, exchanging drinks and smokes, some cleaning weapons or even snoozing as the lurch of the metal beasts allowed.
Ghosts hitching a ride on basilisks. Not the most ideal way of transport, especially in a warzone, but compared to alking its better. Of course, you never saw anything like this at Taros (its perfectly okay to WALK in open desert, but heaven forbid those poor soldiers ride.)
Page 43
“Right down the river’s floodplain to the gates of Voltis. He thinks we can take the city where fifty thousand of his Bluebloods have failed.”
Sturm has 50,000 men (the 'he' gaunt refers to.) Whether this is just the 50th or several regiments together we don't know, but it strongly implied to be the 50th alone.
Page 46
Brin Milo cowered in the shadow of a medical Chimera..
Med chimera.
Page 47
The boy had already set up the field-map, a glass plate in a metal frame mounted like an easel on a brass tripod. Gaunt cranked the knurled lever on the side and the glass slowly lit with bluish light. He dropped in a ceramic slide engraved with the local geography and then angled the screen to show the assembled men: Corbec, Rawne, Cluggan, Orcha and the other officers.
Guard field map chart slide.
Page 48
"At the far end, Voltis City, the old Capital of Voltemand. Thirty metre curtain walls of basalt."
..
"Host from off-planet seized it at day one as their main stronghold. The Volpone 50th have spent six weeks trying to crack it, but the bastards we met today show the kind of force they’ve been up against. "
The size of the walls in the fortress, and the fact the 50th (the 50K men) are one and the same.
Page 48
"One man in every ten will be carrying as much high explosive as he can. Squad leaders should select any man with demol experience. We provide cover for these demolition specialists to allow them to set charges that will take out sections of wall or gates."
Probably means fewer than 100 kg of demo explosives.
Page 48
“I’ve spoken to the Blueblood colonel. He has seven thousand men in motorised units ready to advance and take advantage of any opening we can make. They will be monitoring on channel eighty."
Motorized Volpone. Thats at least 700 vehicles. Whether its part of the larger regiment or not, I don't know.
Page 49
Gaunt adjusted his nightscope and panned it round, seeing features in the darkness as a green negative. The watergate was thirty metres across and forty tall, the mouth of a great chute and adjoining system that returned water to the Bokore once it had driven the mills inside the city.
the watergate. Also Gaunt has a 'nightscope' which I take to have night vision capability.
Page 49-50
e dragged the canvas cover off one of the two huge weapons he had lugged on his shoulders from Pavis Crossroads. The polished metal of the missile launcher had been dulled down with smears of Mirewood mud.
“Try Again” Bragg was a spectacularly lousy shot. But the watergate was a big target, and the missile rack held four melta-missiles.
The night exploded. Three missiles went straight up the throat of the chute. The force of the heat-blast sent stone debris, metal shards, water vapour and body parts out in a radius of fifty yards. The fourth vaporised a chunk of wall, and brought down a small avalanche of basalt chunks. For a moment the heat was so intense that Gaunt’s nightscope read nothing but emerald glare. Then it showed him the chiselled mouth of the watergate had become a bubbling, blazing wound in the huge wall, a ragged, slumping incision in the sheer basalt.
..
The Ghosts charged the watergate. Orcha led the first squad up the sloping drain-away under the molten arch of ruptured stone.
..
He and three of his men swung flamers in wide arcs, scorching and scouring up unto the darkness of the echoing chute. Behind them, Corbec brought in fire teams with lasguns who darted down into the side passages and cisterns of the watergate..
Several interesting tidbits in this.
First missile laucher with multiple reloads held, and using melta missiles. also Gaunt's nightscope again which is more obviously night vision and possibly with thermal as well.
Now, the calcs. Earlier I'd figured that the wall was a foot or two thick, but we really don't know that. I'll assume thick as a single brick (about 8-10 cm, or fist sized thickness.) I'll still assume several metres diamater, as several people can walk through and its implied they can pass through side by side (as noted above). And since its a melta, and given the effects I'll assume 'melting' Assuming stone. around 930 kg melted would be 1.8 GJ for a single missle. Thats roughly 'melta' magnitude, so its not improbable Call it high MJ/low GJ perhaps.
On the other hand we could estimate that the missiles are apparently blasting a ~50 yard (40-50 m) either collectively or individually. Figure 30-40 m diameter at least, up to 100 m diamter for each missile. I figure at least 1-100 kg of TNT equivalent for 'blast radius' effects, although It coudl be an order of magnitude higher for 'lethal to people'
Also again the Ghosts use 'fire teams', albeit of unknown size.
Page 50
In the front rank was Bragg, his empty launcher discarded in favour of the heavy bolter that he had liberated from its mounting back on Blackshard and now lugged around like a smaller man might heft a heavy rifle.
Bragg's pintle heavy bolter again.
Page 51
An assault cannon raged out of the darkness of a side chute. Brith, Orcha and two others disintegrated instantly into red mist and flesh pulp.
..
“Smell that? Burning ceramite. I’d wager they’ve got an overheat jam.”
...
...the two cultists who were struggling to unjam the assault cannon.
Man-portable, tripod (probably) mounted assault cannon and its damage effects iwthin a short period of time (seconds.) Apparently the barrels are ceramite.
PAge 51
“Enemy fire!” Caffran yelled into his bead.
Caffran using micro-bead again.
Page 52
Las and bolt fire slammed back at the Ghosts, dropping several of them. The charging Guardsmen met the cultist force head on in a tight, tall sub-chute, no wider than two men abreast. Bodies exploded, blasted at close range. Bayonets and blades sliced and jabbed. Corbec was in the thick of it.
Lasgun and bolter fire used, 'bodies epxloded' We dont know if both or just one are doing it, but I'm guessing in context its both, although if the lasguns are diong it I'm betting its on full auto and the bolters aren't (either that or they're either very powerful lasguns or very weak bolters.)
Assuming a 20x20 cm area for 3rd degree burns we're talking at least 20 kj. If we are talking about 'flaying' injuries (400 j per sq cm) we're talking 160 kj. If we figure several shots I'd figure we're talking double digit kjs to blow fairly sizable craters (several grams per bolt at least, and probably at least 4-6 bolts.) but that's just an approximation. And if they're not bolters.. well.. it doesn't matter
Page 54
More, heavy fire came their way. Forbin lost his left arm and then the side of his head.
..
They were well equipped, with bolters and lasguns, and armoured.
Again firepower of cultists, but we dont know if its las or bolter fire doing this.
Page 55
The blast was so loud, it almost went beyond sound. The Shockwave mashed into them, chopping the water like a white squall. A kilometre away, a hundred metre section of the curtain wall blew out, ripping a vast wound in the city’s flank, burning, raw, exposed.
..
"The old bastard got his boys into the sanitation outfalls and they managed to dump all of their high-ex into a treatment cistern under the walls."
blowing a 100 metre' section of wall, which as noted before is perhaps 30-40 m tall, and probably roughly that thick, we get a reasonable likelihood of it being craterd. Figure 180 tons for granite at 100 m diameter. If we figure thats 100 kilos, you get roughly 1.8 tons per kilo, which is phenomenally powerful (of course without knowing the kinds of demo we can't say how impressive that is. They could be meltabombs or plasma explosives after all, like Bragg's rocket launcher. If they are distrubted explosives.
Demo charges weigh 1 kg as per FFG, although melta bombs are 12 kg. If we figure the fit somewhere betwene that we get 100 and 8 charges. Figure 22-23 m radius for melta charges, and 10-12 m radius for individuall bombs. Individual charges might be 10-23 tons of TNT equivalent, whilst indivudal ones would be 'only' 180 kilos apiece
Figure as an order of magnitude estimat eits likely for explosives of unknonw type, but its also possilbe I'm understating the quantities used. Possibly overstating, but I doubt many troopers could carry hundreds of kilos of explosive easily.
Page 60
The commissar was dressed as he had first met him, fifty days before, in high-waisted dress breeches with leather braces, a sleeveless undershirt and jack boots.
We dont know quite where Blackshard or Nameth are (the previous two destinations) but if we figure at least 30-50 LY, we get at least 220c and 365c, and those are definite lower limits. Depending on how you interpret the maps (or at least the best I could find) in the Sabbat Worlds Crusade guide, it could be muhc longer. As I've noted I think the Sabbat Worlds region is a sector, but that has never been absolutely definite either.
Page 63
Before him, block-mounted, sat a cogitator, a vox-uplink and a flat-screen mimeograph. A tech-priest had spent over an hour diligently intoning prayers of function as he made the sacred machines ready. They were still propped in their half-open wrought-iron casings to protect against the damp, and thick power feeds snaked off from them and ran from clip supports on the rafters, out of a socket-shutter and off to the distant generator. Lights and light images shimmered and flickered on glass plates glossed by condensation. Setting dials throbbed a dull orange. The vox-link made a low-level serpent hiss as it rose and fell through frequencies.
Gaunt leaned forward and idly surveyed the latest information and tactical data coming through from the orbital fleet and other units. A skein of coded runes crossed and blinked on the dark glass.
Gaunt's electronic equipment, apparently for monitoring the larger scale picture of battles (vox uplink to other battlegrounds and orbital shit) a tac-net interface, I suppose one could call it, only gothicified. And 'portable' by Guard standards, though its no data slate either lol.
Page 67
His lower legs were already double-wrapped with chain-cloth to protect against the shredding thorns.
Page 69
..raised his lasgun. There was dust on the exchanger and he wiped it off.
Probably guessing its some sort of cooling unit (as in heat exchanger.) suggesting it may be air cooled.
Page 71
The voice crackled out of the corpse’s intercom.
..
He made a quick adjustment to the intercom at his collar and then reached down to Dewr’s, switching it off.
The Tanith scouts have intercoms. One has to wonder why they are so loud though, given the importance of stealth (and why they're so active, even Mkoll's) if they're audible enough to give away locations.
Page 72-73
The Chaos dreadnought came to a halt on its great hydraulic feet, sighing and hissing.
..
It was four metres tall, wider than three men, blackened and scorched as if it had walked through hell and back. All signs of paint or insignia had been burnt off, to bare metal in some places.
..
It was blind. Mkoll could see that at a glance. The wounds of the Adeptus Astartes were deep and fearful across its visor. Its optical units had been blown away in some great act. Mkoll knew the semi-circle of burnt metal Dewr had found was from the recess socket of one of its eyes.
The Chaos Dreadnought seems to have taken superficial damage, mostly to its sensors, but otherwise seems largely intact.
Page 73
Another step. Another hiss of pistons and a growl of motivator. Another thump of footfall, and other rain of darts. It was only three metres from them now...
..
he dreadnought swung and targeted the source of the scream as rapidly as the plants around them did. Poison needles spat into a body that had, mere microseconds before, been incinerated by a belching plasma gun.
Plasma cannon froma dreadnought 'incinerates' body. If we're thinkng 'burnt' its single/double digit MJ. If its crmation we're talking hundreds or thousands of megajoules. The interesting thing about this passage isn't so much what the exact yield is, but it implies a fairly exact velocity for the bolt, 3 metres or so covered in 'mirroseconds' would suggest a velocity of hundreds if not thousands of km/s, depending on how many microseconds. If we assume 2 microseconds for example the velocity would be 1500 km/s.
Page 74-75
Mkoll adjusted his gun and set it on the ground.
..
The dreadnought crunched into the clearing. Its left foot clinked against something in the dust. It bent to retrieve it.
Mkoll’s lasgun.
The dreadnought raised it in its bionic claws, holding the gun up to its already ruptured frontal armour as if to sniff or taste it.
Mkoll started to run.
By his estimation, there were five seconds before the lasgun magazine overloaded as he had set it. He threw himself flat as it went off.
...
They found the dreadnought broken open in the blackened clearing. The overload had not killed it, but it had split its armour as the towering machine had strode forward. Poison darts had done the rest, puncturing and killing the now-vulnerable once-man inside. Mkoll could see where the maddened Chaos beast-machine had strode arrogantly on for a few heavy steps after the puny laser blast. Then it had toppled, poisoned, dead.
The 'forced overload' trick, as we witnessed in the Eisenhorn short story where he lost his hand on Sameter. This time its powerful enough to blast open a Dreadnought from relatively close range (less than a metre away), allowing poison needles inside to kill the occupant. This does, of course, assume the Dreadnought is undamaged (and it may be the armour is weakened) but we don't know that based on the evidence we're given.
The simple assumption would be that the explosion is comparable to a grenade or tube charge (40K version of a stick of dynamite, I think), because its an explosive. That's not unreasonable, given the damage to the target and the fact that for the power pack to do damage it would have to have similar energy density potential to chemical explosives. That would suggest between 800-2000 kj for 'stick of dynamite' analogue (it varies somewhat.) and around a megajoule for a grenade (although 40K grenades can go betwene half a kilo, to the kg grenades from the munitorum manual, so it could be the yield could be twice that.) We also know in latter novels that Merrt had a lasgun that discharges its powerpack all at once and had an effect similar to a tube charge, which woudl corroborate the above.
Now if we try to figure out how much it might take to penetrate the Dradnoughts armour, that requires certain assumptions, like thickness of the hull. We know its thicker than both Power armour and terminator armour (probably at least 4 inches thikc, as power armour is at least an inch or two thick, Termiantor armour is even thicker.) WE also know various sources imply Dreadnoughts are as powerful as tanks, so we might infer similar armour thicknesses to a tank or IFV (like a chimera.) Chimeras have between 100-150mm of armour, and the Russ has between 100-200 mm (depending on location.) so that seems a reasonable approximation. Assuming iron construction.
Under Mike's
Explosives page we're given rules of thumb for calculating blasting through iron. (For the record, Gelignite comes in several varieites, but the one commonly used seems to be roughly 50-60% the power of TNT per kg.) 10-20 cm is between 1/3 and 1/6th of a foot, roughly. and for the formula Mike provided you get between 11.56 pounds and 44.9 pounds of gelignite to blast a 10-20 cm deep hole in iron. Or about 2-3 kg of TNT-equivalent at least, to 10-12 kg of TNT for the other end of my estimated thicknesss. That said, it may depend on method and as Mike's page notes there can be vairation in efficiency depending on the method, but it sstill within the order of magntiude of the previous estimates. Playing around with the ADC formulae I figure it coudl be less (if I did the math right) between around 1-1,5 MJ or so to crater iron to the estimated depths (or at least on the high end) which would be roughly the 'grenade/TNT' level.)
Overall I think one or two MJ is likely, since its an order of magnitude estimate anyhow. If the energy intput is lower (although it probably can't be too much lower than I estimated) the per shot yield goes down, whilst if the powerpack yield is greater, it goes up. Assuming between 50-150 shots per pack you get between 6.67 kj (for 150 shots at 1 MJ powerpack) to 40 kj (for 50 shots out of a 2 MJ powerpack.) Which agian fits into that high single/low double digit kj range for lasfire per-shot.
As an aside Mkoll also gets some 10-20 metres away (5 seconds or so) before it goes off. That might imply a couple kg of TNT or so, tops (at least for 'safe' distance.) probably less than 10 kg, although I'd probably call that generally excessive, but it can broadly confirm the yields above.
As a further aside: This is 'Mkoll's story. Mkoll becomes one of those characters who is major through much of the series, although unlike some he doesn't seem to exhibit as much direct development as most other characters do. He remains essentially the same, a Tanith super scout ninja amongst Tanith scout ninjas, and only a few do better.
PAge 77-78
His stomach somersaulted as the troop-ship plunged out of the sky, and every bone in his body shook as the impossibly steep descent vibrated the sixty-tonne vessel like a child’s rattle.
..
You’ll be incinerated in a hypervelocity crash-landing any second now.
sixty ton drop ship/shuttle carrying Gaunt and some ghosts apparently travelling at some sort of hypervelocity. and will possibly crash at hypervelocity.
Page 78
...reconstituted freeze-dried ready-pulped food rations..
This is, by IG food standards, probably high quality. I mean the odds of corpse meat in it are very very low for one thing.
Page 78
The frigate’s bridge was Kreff’s favourite place in the universe. It was hushed like a chapel and always serene, even though it controlled a starship capable of crossing parsecs in a blink, a starship with the firepower to roast cities.
Frigate can cross 'parsecs' in a blink (of an eye?) and 'roast' cities (in an unspeicifed timeframe.) Whether or not the latter is an upper limit and the actual parameters can be debated, but the implied warp (presumably) speed is interesting. Assuming a 'blink' is about a second or so and we figure 1-2 parsecs (3-7 LY) we'd get speeds of tens of millions of c easily. Even if it were minutes or hours we'd still be talking hundreds of thousands or millions of c. Which is.. possible, but it wuold require explanation since we know they do not routinely travel this fast. We know that high hundreds/low millions is not unheard of, but the warp is frankly not predictable enough for that. So if it is valid (it may be hyperbole after all, and 'blink' is not exactly a precisely defined measurement either.) it may simply reflect an 'upper limit' travel speed (EG if everything is going well for the ship) which is not impossible or inconsistent with at least certain kinds of fluff. Its just... not a typical warp speed either.
Page 78
mperial starships hung in the blackness between it and him: some vast, grey and vaulted like cathedrals twenty kilometres long, some bloated like oceanic titans; others long, lean and angular like his own frigate. They floated in the sea of space and tiny black dots, thousands upon thousands of dots, tumbled out of them, fluttering down towards the ripe planet.
Kreff knew the dots were troop-ships: each speck was a two-hundred tonne dropcraft loaded with combat-ready troops.
200 ton dropships, which is interesting given gaunt had a 60 ton one. One presumes it can carry several times more men. Figure maybe 75-90 troops if we scale by mass linearly.
Page 79
He’d been almost afraid of them at first, alarmed by their fierce physicality. Kreff knew war as a silent, detached, long-distance discipline, a chess-game measured in thousands of kilometres and degrees of orbit. They knew war as a bloody, wearying, frenzied, close-up blur.
Differences between space and ground warfare for the Imperium.
Page 80
He glanced about, down the hold of the troopship where another twenty-five Guardsmen sat rigid..
Carries at least 25 troopers. Several squads, plus the pilot/copilot and Gaunt and Milo.
Page 84
Bragg’s huge face swam up in front of Milo’s, upside down.
“Hang on, Brinny-boy,” Bragg said softly. “Soon have you down.” He started rattling the restraints and slamming the lock handle back and forth.
The restraints abruptly stopped restraining and Milo uttered a little yelp as he dropped two and a half metres onto the sloping roof of the troop-ship.
The interior of the troop ship is at least 2.5 - probably 3 - metres 'tall' at least. Bragg seems to occupy a good chunk of that. Considering he was bigger than Corbec, that says something. He's probably at least 2.5 M tall himself, perhaps close to 2.75m. Probably alot smaller than three metres though, so he's not TALLER than a Space Marine (or at least, not taller than them all.) He's like the Tanith version of a goliath.
Oh and that means they survived the collision. Which means that either the shuttle survived a hypervelocity impact (possible givent he context, but not certain) which would require AG fields to have those inside do so, or it really wasn't hypervelocity at the end and Milo just feared that (which is also possible.)
Page 86-87
Out of this he slid a topolabe from its cushioned slot and held it up by the knurled handgrip. The small brass machine whirred and the concentric dials span and clicked as the gravimetric gyros turned in the glass bubble of inert gas.
After a moment, the machine chimed and published a readout on a back-lit blue display.
“We’re in a forest caldera called K7-75, about forty kilometres north north east of the Nero city perimeter."
..
"There’s dense forest for at least eight kilometres in any direction, and this sinkhole’s about a kilometre deep."
Topolabe. Some sort of electronic navigational tool.
page 87
“If you lashed ’em both to a frame,” Bragg put in thoughtfully, “I could drag ’em along. Better me than four other boys.”
Implying Bragg is at least as strong as four men.
Page 88
The commissar checked the topolabe again, scanning for closer detail.
“Interesting,” he murmured. “About four kilometres east there’s some kind of structure. Maybe an old farming complex or something. "
topolabe again.
Page 89
Suth had the squad’s melta, and seared them a path.
Again Pre-Honour Guard Tanith had meltas as well as flamers. Apparently at the squad level or so. As well as snipers (Larkin in Corbec's case.)
Page 89
A combined force of Royal Volpone 50th and Raymian 13th and 16th had driven a steel fist into the ore-smelter heartland of the hive, meeting the enemy’s main motorised units in an armoured battle in the vast, echoing barns of the starship yards and dry-docks.
Implied all the regiments involved are armoured/mechanised/motorised (the enemy also having motorised units.) Also ground based starship yards.
Page 89
Trooper Raglon answered on the bead-link. “Marauder flights are all out of action, sir. Fleet Command recalled them because of the storm. The Chaos effects are screwing their guidance.”
..
Forget the aircraft, that nightmare was screwing with his guidance. This close to a manifestation of Chaos, his senses were whirling. His balance was shot and he felt nauseous, with a throbbing pain in his temple. Terror dimpled his skin and ached in his marrow. He dared not think about what was out there, waiting for him.
And he knew his men were the same. There had been a dozen spontaneous nosebleeds already, and several men had convulsed, vomiting.
And this is why you need psykers to counter Chaos. It doesnt always matter that the cultists may not be as well trained, or numerous as the Imperial side, when they can bring magic shit like this to bear you can be in trouble. Not only is it denying air cover to the forces on the ground (and preventing reinforcement from orbit) but its fucking with those troops already on the ground physically and mentally.
Page 90
The Fleet Command channel repeated its overriding directive: unless the enemy psykers could be neutralised, the Fleet couldn’t land any more reinforcements, any more of the five million Imperial Guard troops still waiting in troop-ships in orbit. Or deploy air-cover.
As noted before, the storm is hampering invasion efforts rather severely. Also there are 5 million guard total to deploy, and given the implied thousands already, there were perhaps tens or hundreds of thousands in the initial deployment. We know 'hundreds' landed and at least 10K were deployed, which would imply at least a platoon sized deploy ment (25-50 men per ship, which is 50-100,000 minimum, perhaps twice that from the 'thousands' of drop ships implied.)
Page 91
.. his fire-team sheltered in doorways as heavy stub gun fire raked up and down...
..
“A little Mad Magic on that stubber.”
..
He took out his nightscope, a little heat-sensitive spotter he’d used back home poaching larisel out in the woods at night. He trained it up the hall, found a hub of heat emanating from the wall.
Most would have aimed for that, thinking it the body heat of the gunner. Larkin knew better. The source was the muzzle heat of the big cannon. That put the gunner about sixty centimetres behind it, to the left.
..
Larkin punched a single shot up the stairwell and through the wall.
..
..ast the landing where the cult soldier lay dead across his stub gun, head half gone.
Larkin the sniper at work. Its interesting that he seems to use a 'non-regulation' scope for his long las, suggesting that not all such rifles have infrared scopes. We know that they have them in some regiments (and have the option of them) but like with everything this is an evident case by case basis. Of course its also interesting that the Tanith have them naturally, although apparently not available to everyone.
Also a bipod/tripod heavy stubber manned by a single person. Its at least 60 cm long as well, which would make it a rather small machine gun (M60's for example are slightly over a metre long, and M240s are even longer.) 60 cm would make it approximately a very compact assault rifle.
Anyhow, Larkin's las-shot blows away half the head. Whether it was a glancing or direct hit, overpenetrated, or if he was using hotshot or not is entirely up for debate (it can be argued either way) but its effective anyhow.
Page 93
Corbec was sure: his life was over when Larkin started shooting. Driven over the edge by what he had seen nailed along the wall, Larkin just went crazy; mindless, oblivious to the otherwise transfixing image of Chaos in that old tenement. Larkin simply opened fire and kept firing. “Larkin! Larkin!” Corbec hissed.
The little man’s howl was drying away into a hoarse whisper. A repetitive clicking came from the lasgun in his hands, the power cell exhausted.
Larkin drains his powerpack in an implied fairly short period of time, matter of seconds tops. What's more this is a long las, and they're not supposed to have full auto settings. According to FFg (and uplifting primer) they do have fewer shots 20 shots for hotshot packs per the primer, and 40 (non hotshot, but still more powerful than regular lasguns) in FFG. Either way we're talking an implied high rate of fire, whether it is semi-auto or full auto or single shot or what. Maybe Larkin just is fast on the trigger.
Page 94-95
The trooper triggered the flame cannon and a volcanic spear of liquid fire spat into the dense undergrowth. Maintaining the spurt, like a horizontal fountain of fire, Brostin swept it left and right.
The trees, horsetails and giant ferns ahead flared and blazed, some of them igniting as if their sap was petrol, some wilting and withering like dust. In twenty seconds, a wall of jungle had been scorched aside and they had a clear view sixty metres into an artificially cleared area.
Tanith flamer in action. Implied duration of at least 20 seconds for the fuel supply, and an implied range of around 60 metres, which is quite good for a flamethrower (, as per
here) The duration is also quite good given that link, as there is no indication thta the flamer is even out of fuel after that. That flamer had a 11 kg or so fuel capacity used in 10-20 seconds... so I expect a Guard one is at least the same (although since many flamer operators like Brostin tend to be burly and muscular, he could carry more fuel, although not significantly more.) Its also impressive given their dramatically greater effects.
Page 95
“An Imperial installation. Three armoured, modular cabins, two larger hardened shelters… they’ve all had the insignia spray-painted out. Communicator-array and up-link mast for a voxcaster, that’s probably what’s jamming us… perimeter defence net… slaved servitors mounted into autoloader bolt cannons. You must have tripped a sensor as you came in, major. "
Imperial installation/base of some kind.
Page 96-97
"He requests we… activate the main batteries and present on a target he has acquired.”
..
“Doesn’t this idiot know anything about Naval tactics?” he chuckled. “Fleet weapons will only engage a surface target from orbit before troop deployment. Once the ground forces are in, air-strikes are the responsibility of the attack squadrons.”
Kreff nodded. “Which are grounded due to the psychic storm, sir. The colonel is aware it is counter to usual tactics, as orbital bombardment is not known for its… um… finesse. However, he claims this is a critical situation… and he can supply us with pinpoint co-ordinates.”
..
"Communications: patch me to Fleet Command. I wish to advise them of our next action. Fire control, energise the main batteries… I have a firing solution here. All stations, this is the captain… rig for main weapon firing.”
Commentary on Navy tactics in planetary invasion scenarios. Bombardment is prelimianry before deployment, but unusual (unheard of) during. It seems to likely be a collateral damage/accuracy issue, but it can be done (at least in these circumstances) when precise coordinates can and are provided. We do know of similar cases of tactical bombardments 'during' a conflict, its not always before, and doesnt even always seem to require precise data, but like everything it has to be handled on a case by case basis, because it probably varies dramatically from region to region and ship to ship. some ships may simply have better ground bombardment capabilities than others.
Page 104
“Is there no medicine you can take?”
“I had tablets. But I forget to take them.” He took a little wooden pill-box from his jacket, opened the lid and showed her it was empty. “Or I forget when I run out.”
[/quote]
The IG provides Larkin medicine he needs. How kind
Page 104
Smoke obscured the sky, las-fire filled the air like bright sleet. Two or more kilometres away, he saw the pair of enormous storming ramps that the sappers of the Imperial Guard had raised against the walls. Huge embankments of piled earth and concrete rubble almost a kilometre long, rising high and broad enough to deliver armoured vehicles to the top of the wall. Heavy fighting within blooms of flame lit the ramps.
Below, nearer, the men on the ground looked like insect dots. Thousands, churning in trenches, spilling out across the chewed and cratered mess of the battlefront to assault the forbidding walls.
Given the ramp length it may imply that the Guard and chaos forces are exchanging lasfire at a distance of over km, but that's not sure. Larkin is far enough away from the ground that people look like dots.
Page 106
" A friend of mine, Cluggan, a sergeant, he was a bit of a military historian. He said that at the Battle of Sarolo, angels appeared over the lines just before dawn and inspired the Imperial forces to victory.”
“Were they visions, do you think? Mass hallucinations brought on by fatigue and fear?”
..
“And what were those angels?”
“Manifestations of the Emperor’s will, come to vitalise his loyal forces.”
“Is that what you think?”
“It’s what I’d like to think.”
“And the alternative?”
“Hnh! Group madness! The meddling of psykers! Lies constructed by relieved men after the fact! What you said… mass hallucinations.”
“And if it was any or all of those things, does that make it any less important? Whatever they saw or thought they saw, it inspired them to victory at Sarolo. If an angel isn’t really an angel but has the inspirational effect of one, does that make it worthless?”
Are the Angels real or not? Does it matter if they are? That's always one of the intriguing aspects of the 'magic is real' aspect of 40K - you can literally say this kind of shit may be a hallucination or it may be real. and even if its a hallucination, the way that thought and emotion influence the warp can grant hallucinations a measure of reality.
As an aside this is Larkin' story. We get our introduction to Larkin's characters early in the book: Crazy, somewhat cowardly, a bit unreliable (as this story indicates.) But as this story ALSO indicates, there is an underlying steel to the man, and over time, the things he faces bring it out of him, so that he passes the trials and emerges much stronger for them. One such trial will occur after Necropolis.
Page 108
"That firefight in the canal. Close quarters. Lopra dead, head blown off; Castin disembowelled; Hech, Grosd, the others, the screaming, the misty smoke of burning blood. Corbec bellowing for reinforcements, daggers of light cutting the air."
We dont know how his head was blown off, but it was by some sort of gunfire, presumably. Possibly lasfire as hinted at by the last passage. If so, single/double digit kj likely.
