Gaunts Ghosts 3 - Necropolis Analysis & Discussion threa

[Lost Soal]

Page 59

The Magnificat was in mid-stream when the eastern sky lit up brightly. There was a sucking shudder, like a wind-rush over the water. The easter horizon blazed with a midnight sun.

...

Gaunt raised a hand to shield his eyes from the glare as a heat-wash rolled down the river. He knew the blast-effects of a nuclear detonation when he saw it.

The nuclear destruction of the Northcol Hives. If we knew the size/yield of the explosion (or could guess at it) we might be able to estimate the distance of the Hive from Vervunhive. We dont have much to go on for yield (other than it didn't last a noticably long time), but given a hive of several ten+ kiloeters in diameter it probably would need to be at least in the double digit megaton range (possibly low gigaton, given comparable events and what we know of even small hives.)

A small correction with this. It wasn't the Northcol Hives being destroyed, it was Vannick Hive, which from the quote on page 51 we know to be 3,000km away.

[Lone_Prodigy]

Page 59

The Magnificat was in mid-stream when the eastern sky lit up brightly. There was a sucking shudder, like a wind-rush over the water. The easter horizon blazed with a midnight sun.

...

Gaunt raised a hand to shield his eyes from the glare as a heat-wash rolled down the river. He knew the blast-effects of a nuclear detonation when he saw it.

A small correction with this. It wasn't the Northcol Hives being destroyed, it was Vannick Hive, which from the quote on page 51 we know to be 3,000km away.

So a nuclear detonation 3,000km away caused a noticeable overpressure/thermal wave. Doesn't this indicate a yield in the gigatons, if not higher?

[Connor MacLeod]

Page 142

Unfortunately, he had chosen a channel that was crippled by interference from the Shield harmonics.

Void shields seem to interfere with the operation of communications equipment, at least small grade stuff like comm beads. If this is true, its likely they also interfere with sensors.

Page 142-143

Gaunt, who had been at Hass West when the storm began, immediately headed for Veyveyr with Daur and a platoon of Tanith.

..

The fifty Tanith Ghosts assembled on the road beside the trucks.

A platoon of Tanith is fifty men. Note that this organization seems to change sometime in later novels to 30 men per platoon (with more platoons) though we dont know exactly when. My guess would be when they induct all the Vervunhive members.

Page 143

He pulled a chart plate out of a thigh pocket and deftly cycled through the map patterns until he found the area they were in. With a stylus, he worked out a possible route.

- mention of a "chart plate" - holds multiple map pattersn and can be plotted on with a stylus, likely hinting at some sort of computerized map system.


Page 144

- the Spoilers regiment (mentioned earlier) and zoican forces are engaging uip and down along the spoil (Vertically) This could generlaly hint at multi-km ranges, given the size of the spoil on the Vervunhive map.

Page 145

..Genx indicated they had about three thousand rounds left for the autocannon, in loops around his body or in the panniers of ammo-drums he had collected. About two minutes' worth of sustained fire, Corbec thought.

3000 rounds of autocannon fire is good for two minutes worth of sustained fire, or 1500 RPM rate of fire.

Page 146

- Domor's optical augmentics can detect or register heat signatures.

Page 147

Venar had an autocannon and severla cans of ammo still strapped to his load-bearing harness, so Milo gave him point to clear the way. The rattle of short cannon bursts echoed through the stores as Venar picked the way ahead clean.

Another man-portable autocannoin operator. This seems to be squad based, though it might also be platoon levle.

Page 148

- one las-shot severes a section of rail track, though we don't know the dimensions or composition of the rail, or whether it fragmented, melted, or vaporized.

Assuming a purely hypothetical rail section 10 cm x 10 cm x 10 cm composed of iron would be around 7-8 kg of iron affected. If we assume melting, that might be 8-10 MJ total to melt that area, but that's purely conjecture.

To estimate "blasting" it, we can refer to Mike's destruction page:

To destroy a cast-iron structural column, you would attach the charge to its base and tamp it as well as possible with dirt. The charge size would then be computed from the rule-of-thumb formula L=100d², where d is the diameter in feet and L is the charge of gelignite in pounds. Therefore, to destroy a six inch thick cast iron column, you would need to attach 25 pounds of gelignite: a very large and powerful explosive charge.

By the above formula, you'd need around 11 lbs of gelignite to destroy a 10 cm thick railing (1/3 of a foot). according to here, gelatin dynamite (which gelignite, I believe is a kind of) is about .4-.5 the effectiveness of TNT, so the las-shot would be equivlaent to around 4-5lbs of TNT.

If we go by the path of the beam alone, which we know is vaporized, and assume a 3 cm diameter hole ~10 cm deep thats around half a kilo of iron affected and 3-4 MJ to vaporize.


Page 149

Rhys rose, a las-round just missing his head, and lobbed a grenade over the wagon so that it fell neatly on teh Zoican side of the rolling stock and vaporised them.

Vaporized at least two, and possibly as many as ten or twelve, Zoicans in the blast.
Didn't completely vaporize the entire bodies, as some sections of a Zoican helment (with parrt o fhe head inside) fly over the wagon to land next to them. We dont know what kind of grenade it was.. if it is "literally" vaporized, ,then it requires many hundreds of megajoules to do this. However, this would be an unusual grenade (incendairy, perhaps?) since frag grrenades don't do this. If "vaporized" means just blasting it aparrt into a mush, it would still require alot of TNT (far more than what a normal grenade puts out, I'm pretty sure - at least equivalent to a couple sticks of Dynamite given that Mythbuster exploding pen incident I cited for bolter firepower.)

This in turn also highlights just how sophisticated Imperial explosives must be, given how compact even large grenades (1 kg ones) are.

Page 150 - one of the Ghosts had his leg virtually blasted off by Zoican fire (probably a hard round/autogun/stubber fire, ,since he's bleeding, but a lasgun ought to be capable of comparable damage, given statements in 1st/2nd edition Battle Manual/Wargear supplements.

severing a leg with cauterization would be 1-2 MJ easily.. blasting apart would probably require double digit kilojoule easily (if not triple digit)

Page 150

The grenade detonated and the force cannoned the freed truck, all eighteen tonnes of it, down the trackway, crushing the Zoicans sheltering at the far end between it and the next Wagon.

[Connor MacLeod]

A small correction with this. It wasn't the Northcol Hives being destroyed, it was Vannick Hive, which from the quote on page 51 we know to be 3,000km away.

So a nuclear detonation 3,000km away caused a noticeable overpressure/thermal wave. Doesn't this indicate a yield in the gigatons, if not higher?[/quote]

Double digit gigatons , probably. You might expect 100-200 gigatons possibly, but then you're starting to get to the point where the blast/thermal effects would be significant. Moreover, the duration of the blast is more prolonged (we're getting into the hours stage) and you're also starting to get to the point where enviromental effects start to become significant, so its unlikely to be more than a few hundred gigatons (significantly less than a teraton, neverminding how large and unwieldy such a nuke would be - gigatons would be hefty enough as it is. I suppose there's a small possibility "nuke" refers to plasma warheads, but I wouldn't make that assumption.)

LP - thanks for the correction.

[Lost Soal]

A small correction with this. It wasn't the Northcol Hives being destroyed, it was Vannick Hive, which from the quote on page 51 we know to be 3,000km away.

So a nuclear detonation 3,000km away caused a noticeable overpressure/thermal wave. Doesn't this indicate a yield in the gigatons, if not higher?

Double digit gigatons , probably. You might expect 100-200 gigatons possibly, but then you're starting to get to the point where the blast/thermal effects would be significant. Moreover, the duration of the blast is more prolonged (we're getting into the hours stage) and you're also starting to get to the point where enviromental effects start to become significant, so its unlikely to be more than a few hundred gigatons (significantly less than a teraton, neverminding how large and unwieldy such a nuke would be - gigatons would be hefty enough as it is. I suppose there's a small possibility "nuke" refers to plasma warheads, but I wouldn't make that assumption.)

LP - thanks for the correction.

I go away for a few months and he forgets my name. Sheesh

Anyway, just out of curiosity, what are you basing the duration of blast on. My recollection is that the passage ends with Gaunt shielding his eyes, then switches to a new scene. There's nothing to indicate how long the blast lasted.

Void shields seem to interfere with the operation of communications equipment, at least small grade stuff like comm beads. If this is true, its likely they also interfere with sensors.

Titanicus confirms that very thought.

[open_sketchbook]

It is rather surprising that shields, which seem to normally be intensity or velocity based in operation, would block low end communication on personal com-beads, as well as sensors. Perhaps this isn't a function of the shield itself, but a side effect of the shield like low-grade electromagnetic radiation or simply disruption of nearby matter by the presence of the shield that makes clear readings and transmission difficult. If this were the case, smaller shields may not carry as intense an effect.

[Connor MacLeod]

I go away for a few months and he forgets my name. Sheesh

YEah yeah. So sue me. I get alot of things on my mind in these discussions

Anyway, just out of curiosity, what are you basing the duration of blast on. My recollection is that the passage ends with Gaunt shielding his eyes, then switches to a new scene. There's nothing to indicate how long the blast lasted.

I seemed to recall indication that the blast may have faded rapidly, but that may be in error. In any case, the side effects (enviromental, and thermal/blast at agiven distancec) are much strictier limitations on yield than the duration in this case anyhow.

It is rather surprising that shields, which seem to normally be intensity or velocity based in operation, would block low end communication on personal com-beads, as well as sensors. Perhaps this isn't a function of the shield itself, but a side effect of the shield like low-grade electromagnetic radiation or simply disruption of nearby matter by the presence of the shield that makes clear readings and transmission difficult. If this were the case, smaller shields may not carry as intense an effect.

Why? Radiation is radiation even if it varies in strength. I fail to see any reason why it should discriminate as you seem to think it would. Moreover, I recall no evidence of "intensity" variation - if shields could figure out the difference between a comm or sensor transmission it should be able to distinguish between (and block) torpedoes and missiles - some sort of actively "adapting/self correcting" shield system would be the only possible way I could see this happening.

Hell, this would be a valid reason for why 40K ships can actually pull off the whole "run silently" trick and be impossible to detect (such as in Execution Hour)

[Connor MacLeod]

Also forgot one:

If they can survive multiple hits with nukes, then why hit them with conventional artillery?

We dont now all of what they're hitting them with or the yields really. some of the latter incidents seem to suggest Zoica was deploying some nuclear level artillery (or nuke equivalent) against Vervunhive, given the sizes of craters. and don't forget that 40K conventional munitions seem to be considerably more powerufl than what we have (even ignoring melta and plasma munitions) And with alot of conventional munitions, its the blast effects that matter than the energy effects (whereas nukes have blast and thermal in relatively equal measures.) Force and momentum can be harder for shields to cope with due to things like conservation of momentum (Mike's discussed this phenomena with shields on his shield essays, so I won't bother going into further detail other than to say they might have been going to literally batter the generators into submission without breaching the shields.) This might especially be a problem as alot of "conventional" 40K munitions can be shape charged

Plus, we dont know if they have acceptable delivery systems for the really BIG yield stuff (like whatever they used to take out Vannick.)

[Connor MacLeod]

Next update

Page 152 - stated here that Genx (Who lost his hand previously) could not wield a lasgun, even though we've seen lasguns used one handed (maybe only exceptionally strong people can do so.)

Page 153

The Ghost next to Fols dropped wordlessly, his jaw vaporised.

Assuming literally vaporized and that we're talking about basically the lower half of his face. (say a 10 cm x 10 cm x 10cm volume roughly) we can say between .5 to .7 kg of organic mass affected. Neglecting cauterisation and inefficiencies, we could be talking about 1.2-1.8 mj at least (assuming 2.5 MJ to vaporise 1 kg of flesh - "vaporize" here will include cremation)

Page 153

A welter of las-shots cut his men aparrt and splashed the wall they had just been using for cover with their blood. Fols lost a knee, an eye, an elbow, and a fourth shot tore through his belly.

Las fire (unknown number of shots) possibly dismembering humans.. although little to know cauterization.

Page 154

A rocket cremated Trooper Feax and threw Larkin into the air.

Cremating a human body requires at least tripel digit MJ (200 MJ or so) but more likely closer to GJ range. IIRC we dont know what kind of rocket it was, but probably man portable, since it was city fighting by this point.

Page 155

- Commissioner Kowle has a storm bolter.

Page 159

-

Tona crossed the ruinscape of the manufactories, industrial areas that had been levelled on the first day beofre the Shield lit up. Shattered rockcrete buildings flanked the lips of craters twenty metres across or more.

mention of craters twenty metres or more in diameter from the bombardment by the Zoicans (Artillery and rockets, in other words.) cratering energy for a 20 meter granite crater by the SD.net ADC is 1.4 Tons. For Ice, its .4 tons.

Page 161

The blade was a compact chain-form: a thick, decorated grip with an extending blade of steel fifteen centimetres long. a flick of the rubberised stud on the index finger ridge activated an iunternal power-cell that made the blade edge vibrate so fast it looked still. But, gak, could it cut!

- Tona Criid's weapon, a vibro-weapon of some kind (or a chain weapon.) Perhaps both. Implies vibro weapons are more common/less advanced than chain weaposn (for whatever reason). Also, if gangers can get them, it should be possible that guard (at least those raised here or worlds with similar technology) could have them.

Page 161-162

- Some of the ghosts' supplies: Camo paint, powercells. Gauze. Bootlaces. Earpieces with wires and plugs. Chemical blocks for fire (like in ghostmaker - they are evidently standard issue.) Metal beakers. First aid nutrient packs. Lots of food: freeze dried buckwheat porridge, corn crackers in long plastic tubes, vacuum-packed soya bars (wet food, apparently.) Self heating soup tins. jars of air-dried vegetables in oil. Preserved fish. Cartons of heat-treated milk.

Page 163

- Caffran notes that Tona is using a vibro-weapon.

Page 165

- Caffran returns the supplies to Tona (she leaves them behind in an attempt to flee0 and added "Sterilised water" flasks, a field-dressing kit, a pack of one shot antibiotic jabs (disposable syringes?), and net wrapped "dry sausage" (more food.) And his laspistol. Its charge pack is "nearly full." Given that Caffran fired only three shots before, this implies that a laspistol probably carries at least fifteen to twenty shots, perhaps as many as thirty or more. (Which is likely: If we assume similarity to modern guns, the pistol probably carries an ammo supply roughly half to a third that of a rifle.)

Page 172

"He took us out, about two thousand of us, and Tanith burned as we left it behind."

Here its implied 2000 Tanith left the planet as it died. Given that in the first couple novels we observe more than 2000 Ghosts (Ghostmaker implies 3000+) we might assume this isn't meant as a precise figure.

It also suggests the bombardment and death of Tanith by the Chaos fleet lasted as long as it took for the Tanith to depart.

Page 181-182

- Domor's augmentic eyesight can link to scopes (binoculars, I presume) to gain further range than the other Ghosts. One assumes it could link to sights and such,.


Page 183 - parts of the Hive (or the hive itself) extend at least a kilometre underground. AGain this is an indicator of how deep thorough exterimatus of hive worlds must reach to ensure elimination of inhaibants.

[Connor MacLeod]

This marks the start of the "endgame" in the novel, as the Zoicans begin their big push, with the massive Chaos Fort o Doom with its uber lasers.

Page 187

- Gaunt, in discussing the Narmenians (who were arrested for insubordination in the last assault) makes it clear that the VPHC is a separate and distinct organization from the Imperial Commissars like Gaunt (and, apparently, subordinate.)

Page 192

- Volpone Storm trooper hellguns have a "sawn off pump-gun" attached to the bayonet lugs under the main barrel. From what we gather later on, these are some sort of grenade launcher.

Page 198

Lotin toppled back and slumped into the rubble scree on the floor, his face gone.

Dont remember what wepaon offhand did it or if it was mentioned, possibly a lasgun.

Page 205[/b

] - "energy flare" from the impact of Zoican shells on the Hive Shield creates interference that disrupts vox communications.

Page 205

At one point, a shell-fall punched through the corridor twenty metres behind them and passed on through the opposite wall, slicing stone so it dribbled like heated butter. The superheated air that slammed down the hall from the impact flattened them.

the KE of a shell impact was sufficiently intense (it seems at least) to melt its way through two stone walls. We have no idea of the size of the shell or the thickness of the walls, but if we assume it passed through half a metre of wall and left a 15 cm diameter hole (a lil larger than a Earthshaker round) would affect ~21 kg. Melting that much silicon would require between 40-50 MJ, depending on exact composition of the wall.

Page 206

THere was a flash and some vast cutting beam drawn up outside the Wall swept over them. Meryn saw it and threw himself flat as the inexorable beam raked the parapet at chest height, vaporising the hurrying line of Vervun troopers in a murderous sequence. They simply vanished in turn, obliterated, leaving behind nothing but clouds of steam and the occasional smouldering boot behind.

The previous page mentions "twenty or more" Vervun primary soldiers, so vaporizing tha many would require at least single or double digit gigajoules, and this is clearly a vastly lower limit, since the beam isnt even halted by affecting that many troops.

Page 206

- Enemy shellling and beam-fire were punching "clean through" the Wall and the forts now, striking the worker habs (close range?). The rounds were blasting through "ceramite and adamantium.") The shield, incidentally, ,does not extend down into or past/under the shield. Though it may be reinforced with other methods (IE power fields)

Incidentally, the hatches of the "Ontabi Gate" melted "like ice" under this bombardment, it would seem. Assuming a 40 meter tall, 40 meter wide gates a meter thick, made of iron, they would require 15 TJ to melt (in a very short period of time)

Page 207

General Nash, commanding the Roane Deepers, uses his magnoculars on "heat see", noting that tankes and armoured vehicles, twenty kilometres away, are advancing on his position, on the Vannick highway. N ash also notes they'll be attacking Hass East in "under an hour".

Page 215-216

Less than five minutes after the Shield vanished, the first Zoican shells began to wound the inner hive. It was as if their artillery, their Earthshakers, their siege mortars, their missile positions had all been ranged ready, waiting.

Description of Zoican artillery that has been engaging the Hive, presumably since the get go.

Page 216

The shelling and the dreadful cutting beams searing Hass East scored a hole a hundred metres wide where the Curtain Wall and the Ontabi Gate had once stood, and as the beams redirected towards the inner habs and the upper stretches of the Curtain, the Zoican armoured column and massed infantry along the Vannick Highway pressed in through the Breach. The Zoican land forcees made their first entry into Vervunhive proper thirteen minutes after the Shield came down, though the insurgent forces encountered by Seargent Varl were, by then, well inside the hive.

Assuming the beam is about a meter or two in diameter (enough to vaporize a person completely) and penetrates some 10 meters thick, and affects silicon will be between 4-6 tj at least (twice that if 2 meter width.)

Page 216-217

Long-range shells - some two thousand kilos apiece, launched from railcars drawn up on hasty, makeshift trackways out in the southern grasslands - whistled and whooped as they dropped on the Commercia and the mercantile suburbs. Barter-houses blew out, their rich canopies igniting in sheets of flame as hot as the heart of a star. Shockwaves crumpled others and the massive shells dug vast craters in the rockrete coating of the hive. Hundreds of thousands of refugees were still pressing to leave the commerical spaces. Most died in the firestorms or were instantly obliterated by the shelling. Some of the craters were five hundred metres across.

2 ton shells (assuming this doesnt refer to explosive payload, which would result in insane energy densities.) apparently creating massive craters 500 meter craters, going by the ADC for granite would be ~23 kilotons (6 kilotons for ice.) so it can be assumed to be at least equal to a small nuclear bomb. If its cratering the hive structure (something more metlalic) it could be up to half a megaton or more (500-600 kilotons, assuming iron.) Generally we'd assume the value falls somewhere between single digit KT and triple digit KT.)

Page 218[/b

] - Xance of the NorthCol reinforcements is vaporised by a shell. Assuming a 70 kg man thats around 150-200 MJ to vaporize, though distance isnt known. (And this is basically akin to all the other previous "shells vaporizing men" calcs I've done before.)

Page 219

The missile entered House Command through the great window, slamming a blizzard of lead-glass inwards with its supersonic bow-wave before striking the rear wall and detonating.

The storm of glass shards stripped Vice Marshal Anko's considerable flesh from his bones in a millisecond before the blast destroyed House Command.

Effect of a missile impact on the Hive command centre. ITs implied that the missile may have had supersonic passage.

Page 219

- a pair of Earthshaker shells struck an Ecclesiarchy Church (Basilica), levelling walls "two metres thick", flooding the rivers with "molten lead" from the roof and windows.

[Connor MacLeod]

This update will be in two parts (both smaller), ,because I forgot to add some quotes last time and I need to re-clarify some of the other ones:

Some quotes I forgot to add with the last update.

Page 211

"Gak you, you wretched off-world scum!" bawled Tarrian as he pulled his autopistol from its holster. Gilbear dropped him with a shot to the chest. Tarrian's body exploded out through the back of hte wooden seating.

The VPHC guards surged forward, racking riot-guns and firing. Gaunt saw a Blueblood fly backwards, hit in th eshoulder.

..

Point blank, in the tight confines of the court chamber, Volpone met VPHC head on, hellgun against riot-gun, filling the air with smoke, blood-mist, and death.

Hellgun shot sends VPHC guy flying back (significant momentum from explosive vaporization of the torso, although the degree isnt known for sure, depending on various qualities.

VPHC troops using "riot guns", also with significant momentum (can knock a Blueblood storm trooper around, and those buggers are two-plus metres tall and heavily muscled, wearing carapace...) Its implied the riot-guns are of similar power to the hellguns.

Page 213

- Marshal Croe, leader of the Vervun forces, is wearing cermaite "war armour." Unpowered presumably, ,so its likely carapace.

Page 216

The shelling and the dreadful cutting beams searing Hass East scored a hole a hundred metres wide where the Curtain Wall and Ontabi Gate once stood, and as the beams redirected towards the inner habs and the upper stretches of the Curtain,

Slight clarification to earlier calc, wasnt just a beam making the hole, it was the beams plus shelling. And its 100 meters diameter. Assuming a 10 metre thick wall, and melting (we can confirm this for the beam, and shells are noted to be doing this on page 205 already) is 365 TJ, which is considerable firepower even if one assumed (unliekly as ti is) that a huge amount of firepower was concentrated on a small area (rather than area bombardment as the entire incident suggests, meaning that its not likely more than a few dozen or a few hundred shells and maybe a couple beams did this.)

Page 217

House Nopherendi, on Level 68, took a direct hit from a massive incendiary rocket and the entire noble lineage was immolated. They died frenzied, tortured deaths amid the furnace of tapestries, furniture and drapes in their exhalted court. Lord Mompherenti himself, ablaze from head to foot, ran screaming for a hundred paces and toppled from the raised balcony of his banquet all. His burning body, streaming a trail of fire like a comet, plunged fifteen hundred metres down onto the roofs of the central district.

Level 68 is 1.5 km high up (lower limit on Hive size). I dont recall offhand whether or not the total number of "levels" of Vervunhive is ever given, but it could easily indicate the hive is several (2-3 km) tall.)

Also note that the incendiary rocket basically wipes out the entire household (burning several dozen to several hundred people.) which even assuming third degree burning (or just boiling/searing level energies) will require 100+ kJ per kg affected - 7 MJ per person. so many hundreds if not thousands of megajoules easily for the rocket.

Page 219

A brace of Earthshaker shells struck the great Basilica of the Ecclesiarchy east of the Commercia

The two-thousand-year-old edifice.... shattered like glass. The roof was thrown outwards by the multiple blasts and millions of slate tiles showered the area for kilometres around, whizzing down like blades.

Stone walls, two metres thick, were levelled in the deluge of fire, flying buttresses sundering and bursting apart. Precious relics almost as old as the Imperium itself were consumed along with the priesthood. The streets outside were awash with rivers of molten lead from the roof and the windows.

I'm betting that in terms of blast damage a modern bomb could accomplish that easily, but it wouldnt neccesarily create "rivers of molten lead." Assuming a 50x50 meter wide "river" (conservative) 1/4 a metre in depth, you could expect many hundreds of gigajoules expended (by my estimates at least.. melting point of Lead near as I can calc it is around 100-150 KJ per KG) - thats alot of energy.

Even if it was equivalent to say 100 kilos of TNT or so, that's still quite impressive (considering an Earthshaker masses some 38 kg, and not all of that is explosive.)

Generally I suspect some Earthshaker rounds use modified melta warheads to achieve hte destructive effects, since thermal seems to be as significant (moreso) than blast here, and the energy outputs would match.

[Connor MacLeod]

Page 222

Tarrian was dead, his rib-cage blasted open like a burned-out ship's hull

This was from a single hellgun round. Its worth noting the explosiive/effect generated enough momentum to bodily through Tarrian backwar4ds through his chair. Assuming a kill shot 10-15 cm in radius (basically blasting the chest open, lets assume 10 cm, or a crater 20 cm in diameter), would yield around 2-6 kg of flesh affected.) Given cauterization energies (3.5 KJ/KG*K, ~650K temp, the energies involved would probably yield several megajoules per shot easily, though it could up into double digit MJ for higher temps (or a biger hole). And it doesn't factror possibilites like body armor, inefficiencies, or vaporization (which we know happened to SOME extent, given the reaction forces the body endured earlier.)

Page 223

Gaunt took the slate and read it, thumbing the cursor rune to scroll the illuminated data. He could barely believe what he was seeing. The information was already a half-hour old. The Shield was down. Massive assaults and shelling had punished the hive. Zoican forces were already inside the Curtain wall.

Data slate information. We dont know how it was uploaded, but it gives indication of informational capabilities (IE intel) - at least those capable given the circumstances.

Page 225

Lesp fought with the struggling Feygor, clamping wet dressings around the scorched and melted flesh of his neck and trying to clear an airway.

"His trachea is fused! Feth! Help me hold him down!"

Bragg fired a last burst or two and then dropped from the stub-nest and ran to Feygor and the slender medic. It took all of his gargantuan strength to hold Feygor down as Lesp worked. The las-hit had cauterised the wound, so there was precious little blood, but the heat had melted the larynx and the windpipe into a gristly knot and Feygor was suffocating.

...

Lesp threw the small, plastic-handled scalpel away in disgust and pulled out his long, silver Tanith knife. He stuck it into Feygor's throat under the blackened mass of the scorched wound and opened a slot in the windpipe big enough to feed a chest-tube down.

Feygor takes a (glancing) hit to his throat, managing to cauterize down to the windpid and damage/destroy much of his throat This suggests roughly half the throat area was affected (say 4-5 cm radius) - so maybe .2-.3 kg of flesh affected. It would likely take several hundred kilojoules to cauterize that area, which would happen if it were a low powered shot or a glancing hit (or perhaps just a highly penetrating shot, given the lack of explosive damage and purely thermal effects. Some lasguns seem to be able to switch from such modes at will.)

Page 227

- mention of "super-heavy" self propelled guns.

Page 228

Trygg made a sound like a scalded cat and fell, severed at the waist.

No idea what did it, but the Zoicans are advancing, so its probably a las weapon. AS we know from First and Only, vaporizing (which happens along the path of th ebeam) a 2-3 cm diameter hole through a 20 cm thick, 30 cm wide torso can involve 1-2 kg of mass, so between maybe 3-5 MJ to do this, though we dont know how manyn shots it takes (its quick enough to allow for a noise but thats about it.. say a couple seconds.) And this is larggely conjectural, sincec we dont know if its explosive or cutting mode for the las weapon (it could be either, anmd either would affect the calc)

Page 228

Caffran rolled away, firing his loaded rocket launcher. The rocket hit the Zoican in the gut, lifted him twenty metres into the air and blew him apart.

Blow apart (ignoring the body armor a storm troop woudl be carrying, it didnt over-penetrate despite flinging the guy in the air) probably requires at least the equivalent of several sticks/pounds (or several KG?) of TNT.

As for the rocket's momentum, sending someone up into the air a score of meters is quite impressive, and requires substantial momentum (keeping them aloft against the force of gravity) Even t a few m/s (low end) it would require hundreds of kg*m/s worth of momentum, and the Zoican body armor (Storm troops are mentioned so this may be very heavy flak or even carapace) resists it fairly well. Odds are though, given it didnt detonate until it reached that height, the velocity is much faster (say 10+ m/s), s uggesting possibly 1000+ kg*m/s worth of momentum.

Since that rocket could only be so heavy (Say 5 kg at most?) it also means it had an incredibly high velocity. The KE of the incident is also impressive (double or triple digit KJ.)

[Connor MacLeod]

Next to last update for Necropolis. This is the big battle before the final confrontation, and we see the Narmenians in full fury.. one of my favorite parts of the book. Lots of calcs too, so pay attention.

I'll probably finish up this sometime before Christmas and then start Draco either before or after New YEars depending on how the mood strikes me.

Page 230

"Get out there and prove my belief in you," Gaunt snarled. "I need the Narmenian Armour at full strength if I'm going to hold this place."

Gaunt tells Grizmund to basically deploy all his forces against the Zoicans.

Page 231

They rose past fire-black levels and ones where twisted skeletons, baked dry by the heat of incendiaries, clawed ath the lift doors.

The Zoican incendiaries seem to have burned the flesh off of skeletons. Goes without saying this would require high MJ level energies.

Page 233

He fired his single-shot piece [boltgun] and the heavy round took the youth's head off. It continued to advance and shoot.

A sudden burst of autogun fire licked down the atrium, and tore the puppets to pieces, leaving nothing but a few shreds of flesh trailing from the wires.

Four men came down the hall from the main entrance.

Single shot bolter (human scale) explodes a head. autogun fire of unkown quantity from four individuals shreds a couple servitors to "shreds."

Page 234

- Grenade launcher under the Volpone storm trooper hellgun barrels. I'm not sure if this differs from the aforementioned under-slung "pump gun" or not.

Page 234

Gilbear and one of his point men bellowed the Volpone battle-pledge at the tops of their lungs as they launched grenade after grenade in through the arch. The launcher mechanisms thumped and clacked as they pumped them.

Multi-round grenade launchers on the Volpone Hellguns.

Page 236

- mention of "cloning farms" - used in this context to create an 1800 kilo monstrosity/abomination (A conglomeration of flesh from humans and animals.)

Page 237

Gilbear fired twice, blowing open holes in the lower belly of the thing. these issued spurts of stagnant pus onto the carpet. Then the Blueblood colonel was flying through the air, tossed aside by a twist of the huge horns.

Backing frantically, the other Volpone fired wildly. Blubbery, wet punctures appeared in the creatures flank, some oozing filmy fluid, others erupting with sprays of tissue and watery blood. A cloned human arm was blown right off and lay twitching on the ground.

A screaming Volpone was hoisted into the air and shaken violently to death, impaled through the chest on one of the horns. Another was crushed under the meat-beast's bulk, leaving a trampled mess of blood, bone, and broken armour pressed into the carpet.

Reiteration of the cloning thing, and indication of what Blueblood carapace armor can endure (Gilbear gets send flying through the air by an impact of the horns, though presumably glancing as a direct impalement penetrates.) The armour cannot withstand being crushed under a nearly 2 tonne bulk (moving)

Page 237 - Gaunt shoots another Volpone being torn apart by the beast in the head. The bolt evidently punches through the armor. So bolters (at least Gaunts) penetrate this form fo Carapace (though examples exist of carapace withstanding bolter fire, such as in the Lightener Space Wolf novels.)

Page 238 -

Another Volpone was caught by the beast's clamping jaws and shredded by savage bites of its teeth.

The pressure of getting crushed/shredded in the jaws exceeds the capacity of the armor.

page 239

- a Volpone storm-trooper's web of grenades explodes the beast's torso. Assuming a large "web" (say a dozen or so) exploding roughly half the beast's mass (900 kilos) ought to compare to modern grenades very well (if not better.. I'd say at least a dozen sticks of dynamite, which should closely compare with modern grenades.)

Page 241

Gilbear nodded and fired two shots through the portal window. Filthy green water rushed out in torrents, flooding the floor. Steam rose from it.

Gilbear leaned down once the force of the outrush slackened, and he watched the twitching, spasming form of the High Master trembling in his draining tank. He fired a grenade in through the broken port and turned away.

A dull crump and the sheet of steam taht billowed out of the window hole marked the end of Salvadore Sondar, High Master of VervunHive.

Its implied here that the grenades fired into the chamber might have done significant vaporization of the interior cavity (including the High Master) as well. This is proably some very heavy (anti-armour) kind of grrenade would be my guess, though it might be antipersonnel. It would be exceedingly powerful in any case even if only a small volume of water was vaporized (assume a 2x2x2 chamber and only 1% of that mass is vaporized - that would still be several hundred MJ, nevermind what happened to the High Master.)

Page 243

- Again, with the shield reactivated, the Zoicans can only attack via the ground (evidently through the holes punched in the Curtain Wall.), indicating that the shield does not reach fully to the ground.

Page 244

- the Ghosts descend and strip the lasgun power cells from dead Zoicans. This seems rather interesting (though they've done it in earlier novels too) given how much of a problem they have acquiring lasgun powerpacks in "Guns of Tanith."

Page 248

- Varl's cybernetic arm punches the head off of a Zoican.

Page 249

Wind-carried ash washed back across the stone terrace of the Commercia where the Narmenian tanks were drawn up: one hundred and twenty seven main battle tanks of the Leman Russ pattern, with twenty seven Demolishers and forty-two light support tanks.

Earlier it was noted that Gaunt ordered Grizmund to assemble all of his Narmenian forcecs. HEre we are given a breakdown of what he has. This is roughly consistent with what we know of other, similar Guard formations (in terms of size if not composition.)

This also helps us establish the maximum number of tanks that oculd have blasted the aforementioned Titan-sized wheel vehicle that tried climbing up the Curtain wall earlier in the assault.

Page 249]

Grizmund pulled his officers into a huddle and flipped out the hololithic display of a data-slate.

Data slates can have holographic capabilities.

Page 249

His voice was relayed by vox/pict drones to all the Narmenian crews. His briefing turned into a speech, a rousihng declamation of power and victory. At the end of it, the tank crews, more than a thousand men, cheered and yelled.

Remote visual/audio feed via drones. One may wonder whether this may be part of the intel gathering capability of the Naremnians.

Also a Narmenian regiment has over 1000 men.

Page 249 - Grizmund's Russ is a "long-chassis Russ variant with a huhndred and ten centimetre main weapon." I won't bother to comment on the absurdity of the gun calibre, since its unlikely that even 40K weapons use meter bores for main battle tanks. Either it meant 11 cm or 110 mm (presumably) but it may be otherwise.

Page 250 - House command (destroyed by a missile) was a "molten ruin full of scorched debris and a few fused corpses." The floor and three levels below were blown out and disintegrated. Even a rough estimation of the energy input (A few metal machines, the bodies) should indicate triple digit MJ for the missile.

Page 250
- portable codifiers and vox systems are brought in and set up to create a temporary command post for Gaunt. These are evidently linked to provide information from the datafeeds and receive information from forces all over the Hive, giving an indication of command and ocntrol capabilities when properly done.


Pag 251

- Imperial Guard Armour divisions are subservient to Infantry command.

Page 253

- Gaunt uses a hololithic map of the city (overlaid with data received frfom the battlefield) to plan out his strategy.

Page 260

Grizmund called it "Operation Dercius." He'd sent his sentinel recon units and foot-troop spotter units forward towards Croe Gate as he composed his tank brigade in the Commercia. The spotters couldn't fix the position of the moving Zoican armour, but they could assess its force and direction. Grizmund had compiled the data and sent his main columns first south into the habs and then turned them east at full speed, to catch the enemy's flank. Grizmund truly understood the power of armoured vehicles, not just the physical power, but the psychological strength. If a tank was a threatening thing then a tank moving fast, and firing accurately and repeatedly, was a nightmare. The tank strike was his forte and he only admitted into the Narmenian cadre drivers who could handel thirty-plus tonnes of armour at speed, and gunners and layers who could fire fast, repeatedly and make kills each time.

In the command chair of The Grace of the Throne, Grizmund watched the picts on his auspex slate wink and flash as they marked hits on the glowing target runes. The interior of the turret was a red-lit sweat-box, alive with the chatter of the vox and the efficient call and return of the gun team. Fresh brass-stamped shells clanked down into the greased loading rack from the magazine over the aft wheels, and the layer primed them and shunted them forward to the gunner, who was hunting through the glowing green viewer of his scope. Every few seconds, the layer eased the muzzle recoil brake and the main gun fired with a retort that shook the tank and welled smoke into the turret, smoke quickly sucked out through the louvres of the outlets.

The Narmenian tanks in action, a number of details can be evident:

- its implied that Narmenian tanks are at LEAST 30+ tonnes. This may refer to the light tanks, as regualr russes are twice as heavy. (This may suggest the light tanks are twice as fast.)

- These reguilar Russes are quite capable of firing while on the movie (Accurately)

- The command tank had auspex, and possibly the other tanks as well (Also apparently a targeting scope.)

- the apparent ROF of the tank is several seconds, and teh rounds are not so heavy that the loader has trouble putting them in.

Page 261

Now came the part that required true skill, a manouvre Grizmund had dubbed, "The Scissors." As his tanks came around to re-engage, another fifty under Brigadier Nachin charged the enemy from the other side, from the direction of Grizmund's original strike. A textbook disaster in the hands of less able commanders, but at the turn, Grizmund's forcees had begun to send identifying vox beacons to distinguish them frrom the enemy, and Nachin's forces did the same. The rule was anything caught between their charges that didn't broadcast the correct beacon was a target. Grizmund had used this tactic nine times before and never lost a tank to his own fire.

That fine frecord was maintained at Vervunhive. Like the jaws of some vast beast, the opposing Narmenian armour charges tore in towards each other, crushing and destroying everything between them. Grizmund and Nachin's speeding tanks passed through each other's ranks, some vehicles missing others at full speed by only a hull's span.

More of the Narmenian tanks slaughterin ghte Zoicans. Note of interest that the Guard forces use "vox beacons" to distinguiish their troops from enemy ones (and the tank crews would need to be able to register this or distinguish it, including the gunners, suggestings some electronic sighting or auspex capability in other tanks.)

[Connor MacLeod]

Last necropolis update

Page 266

Gaunt studied the amulet. It was a system-slayer and, from what the girl said, quite the most powerful and formidable example of its kind he had ever heard of. In the time of Heironymo, House Sondar had specialised in codifier systems and sentient cogitators, and they had enjoyed long-term trade partnerships and research pacts with the tech-mages of the Adeptus MEchanicus. This was the masterpiece: in the event of anyone achieving total technological mastery of Vervunhive, the activation of this amulet would annihilate the command and control systems, erase all data and function programs, corrupt all codifiers and lobotomise all cogitators. It would cripple Vervunhive and allo wthe device's wielders to free the hive from would-be conquerors now rendered helpless.

In its peculiar way, ,it was more potent than atomics or a chapter of the Adeptus Astartes.

Several things of interest.. the Imperium still seems to employ some form of AI tech or AI like tech.

Next, the Admech seems to "lease out" some of its tech to lesser grgoups.. I imagine they get some sort of monetary or resource consideration for this "privelege" (They build their power by letting people use tech and not coming down on them like a ton of bricks really. God what a fucking Monopoly the ADMech is.)

The amulet represents some form of hacking/informational warfare systems and technology, ,but what seems to be a very compact and powerful form.

Page 271-273

The Hass [river] was almost three kilometres wide, icy cold and plagued with strong currents.

...

Folik, steering his ferry on a return run across the Hass, saw lights and movement on the north shore to the east. Zoican motorised brigades were sweeping in along the far shore from the pipelines and the Hiraldi road, pincering round to deny the escape route. The Zoicans clearly intended no one should survive the destruction of the hive. By dawn, the Zoican army groups were assaulting the tide of refugees on the north bank.

...

Now there was no way across. The ferries returned to the south docks, ,many under fire from Zoican forces on the north side, and tied up.

...

The Zoicans began to fire across the river into the tightly packed refugees. Despite the wholesale killing, it was a matter of hours before the civilian masses began to draw back into the hive.

..

Sporadic enemy fire from across the Hass stippled the waters around them and smacked off the hull. Parts of the docks were ablaze now. Folik expected a rocket or mortar to blow them out of the water at any moment. He fetched another bottle from the wheelhouse and a las-round punched straight through the cabin window and out the other side over his shoulder as he stopped to reach into the steerage locker.

Notes:
The previous page (and the map) suggest about 3 kilometers or so (maybe 4, by the map) width for the river.

These were motorised divisions (Chimaeras) suggest it was probably infantry weaponry. There was mention of "las rounds" and "rockets" and "mortars", so this may vey well suggest a 3km
effective range for las-fire.


Zoicans engage massed crowds across a 3 km or so river (the map suggests slightly larger but that may not be wholly accurate.) We dont know totally the kinds of weapons used, although the mention of las rounds suggests probably lasguns and man portable rocket and mortar weapons It may mean lascannon or multilasers, but you'd expect a lascannon hit to be more lethal so close up even as it overpenetrates. In any case it suggests lasgun, rocket, and mortar weapons have ranges of at least 3 kilometers against large groups of people (ie not precision fire, but its still lethal at that range)

It might seem odd to imply that lasguns could have a multi-km range like this (even though we know Larkin has done similar, as well as similar incidents in the Chapter War novel, and Dark heresy has civilian hunting rifles with a 2 mile range at leat) but this is not accurate fire (which would be lower range) - you would probably have to open up against an enemy on full auto to hope to hit at that range. And dont forget that lasguns can fire pretty far underwater and still be pretty lethal, which is orders of magnitude denser than air.

Also it must be noted that for many of their opponents precision is important to achieve lethality. Orks require max power hits to specific parts of the body (IE headshots) and Tyranids require hitting weak spots (Eyes, joints, etc.,) which limits how far away you can engage them. Only really human enemies (rebels and chaos spawn) might be vulneralbe here.

Page 273

The vast Zoican vehicle shuddered and then retched huge, searing beams of plasma energy at Hass West Fort: cutting beams, like the ones that had dissected Ontabi Gate, but larger still and far more powerful, energy weapons of a scale usually seen in the fleet engagements of naval flagships. The roar was deafening, sending out a shockwave that was felt kilometres away.

Hass West Fort and the gate it protected were obliterated. Cargin, Anglon, a nd all the remaining defenders distintegrated in one blinding instant. As the cutting beams faded, rocket and gunnery platforms all across the pyramid opened fire and piled destruction on the ruins. The air stank with ozone and static and fycelene. For half a kilometre in each direction, the Curttain Wall collapsed.

The Pyramid seems to be mounting alot of titan grade weapons judging by power and effects, though they may be greater. I "energy weapons of as cale ususally seen in fleet engagements of naval flagships" doesnt say much since wweapons of many scales will be employed in such cases, and you can have large numbers of small guns or small numbers of large guns. It could be high megaton or low gigaton or not.. some ships do mount thousnads of bloody guns or more. It could be point defense or something bigger.

Note the weapons behave like bloody lances even though they are too small for proper lances on an Imperial warship.

Page 292 - the pyramid, Asphodel's cutting beams take eight minutes to recharge. Again this hints at titan scale reactors.

Page 293

Three Zoican soldiers in full battledress charged up onto the cageway, blasting at him. Gaunt lost his footing and fell, the las-shots screaming over his head. The shots blew apart the torso of the Volpone leaping in behind him and threw his corpse back and outwards so it fell away down the slope of the hull.

Las fire from three Zoicans explodes a Volpone trooper's torso and imparts significant backwards recoil to it. Its worth noting that the Volpone was probably one of Gilbear's carpaace armored troopers who had accompanied Gaunt.

Page 295

One of the scratches, a man whose name Gaunt would never know, ,was sliced apart by the initial shots. His blood sprayed the bone icons on the wall, and the symbols began to squirm and shift.

Zoican las fire "slicing apart" another trooper, but apparently with little cauterization (or only partial) due to the blood spray. (then again even with cauterization you can get at least a little intiial bleeding)

Page 295

A Ghost nearby, Lonner, collapsed with the back of his neck blown out.

Las-weapon blows out parrt of a guy's neck. Contrast this with Feygor earlier on, who just had it badly burned/fused/cauterized by a las-shot. One can presume the las weapons can vary between "explosive" and "non explosie" damage - ie diffrence between pulsed and continuous fire. That would make sense, as it could be considered balancing effects and needs (penetration, raw damage, ,explosive vs thermal effects, etc.)

Page 297

The las-shot had exploded MkVenner's left elbow and disintegrated his biceps

las-wound from Mkvenner. It seemed pretty extensive but presumably a grazing hit.

Page 297

Beside him, Vinya, one of the loom-girls, rebounded off the wall as a brac eof las-shots caught her in the belly.

...

The wound itself had self-cauterised in charred, knotty lumps, but the damage had shredded her insides, and she was bleeding out rapidly.

A pair of las-shots creating a preusmably large belly wound given the "shredded insides." ASsuming a 15 cm diamter "wound" and penetration of 10 cm, we might assume at least a few kg of flesh cauterized (ignoring what might have been vaporized or blonw out), which should be a MJ or so. Las shots here would be high KJ (triple digit) or low MJ (single digit)


Page 304 - appearance of the Darkwatch, elite Chaos champions who serve as bodyguards of Asphodel. THey have the ability to shift their location in a form of quick, shorrt-range teleport. They also appear to carry power weapons (or maybe force weapons, since the weapons are called "Chaos tainted"


Page 305

But something kept him alive. Partly, his elevated battle-edge, partly his determination, but also, he was sure, Heironymo's sword. It seemed to smell the shifting creatures and forewarn him - by atingle- of their impossible movements.

the sword of Hieronymo Sondar, ,a power weapon bestowed upon Gaunt, evidently has the ability to detect and "forewarn" Gaunt of the Darkwatch's movements. Or Gaunt is innately psychic. Or both. Or whatever. This is 40K it could be anything (including divinely inspired guidance from the Emperor.)



Page 306

Bragg's unrelenting [autocannon] fire-cone gradually disintegrated the red-bladed Darkwatcher, which advanced on him, despite the colossal wash of bullets, before finally exploding, a few flicker-steps from him.[

Braggs autocannon explodes a Darkwatcher.

Page 306

Haller snatched up the Blueblood's fallen hellgun, ,pumped the under-barrel launcher and blew the thing's head off with a rocket-grenade.

Darkwatcher killed by grenade. Its interesting that the volpone grenade launchers fire RPGs. A upscaled bolter?

Page 308

Domor's lasgun exploded in his hands, blowing him up, back, and off the platform.

Domor's lasgun blows up.

Page 308

Heritor Asphodel, Chaos warlord, daemon-thing, fuelled by his dark gods in the warp, standing fully six metres tall,...

...

Gherran was lacereated by an ebbing fold of darkness, sharp as a billion blades. His blodo made a mist that drenched Gaunt.

Genx was pulverised by the concussive force of the daemon's fist as he tried to reload his wepaon an dfire.

Heritor Asphodel.

Page 308
Fiftieht day. It took twenty seven days for Macaroth's forcecs to arrive. It took 4-5 days for the astorpathic message to reach Macaroth fron Intendant Banefail earlier in the novel, suggesting that Astropathic comms may be 5-6x faster than warp travel itself. (though this is both ways, so its more like 10-12x for a one way message.)

Page 309

ten thousand ships, some the size of cities, some bloated like ornaate oceanic turtles, some slender and serrated like airborne cathedrals]

"city cized" ships suggest smulti-mile vessels like warships, but we can't know about purposes. I assume the vast majority are not warships, but even if a tiny fraction were warships that could easily be many hundreds (which would be impressive, since it can't be the full might._) Tens of thousands of ships regardless of type is pretty damn impressive as an indcation of transportt and logistics and resourcese (expended on retaking a single system, mind)

Page 310

Macaroth unleashed his might on the planet below; six million guardsmen, half a million tanks, squads drawn from three chapters of the Adeptus Astart,s two Titan Legions, troop Dropships, bulk machine-lifters and shuttles dropped in a swarm on the hass valley.

Thats not alto of foces considering the ship numbers. Why bring so many starships? Transports?

[Connor MacLeod]

I'm gonna throw "In REmembrance" the Gaunts Ghosts short story included in The Founding Omnibus here since thats technically related ot all this. Page numbers ARE taken from the Omnibus, just so folk know that.

Page 747

- Vervunhive is stilla round and in Imperial hands sixty years after the events in Necropolis. This seems to imply that the Sabbat Worlds Crusade was at least partly successful.

Page 755

His face and arms were pink with freshly healing burn tissue and this was his first patrrol since he had been injured. I asked him how he had been hurt. Apparently a lasgun had exploded in his hands during close combat with HEritor Asphodel.

Domors lasgun blew up on him in the last battle. Of course we dont know if the power pack went up or how much power it had left when it did (it might have been the capacitor that overloaded) so its hard to draw many conclusions from this really.

Page 756

It all seemed alarmingly casual to me, but Bragg carried the sort of heavy autocannon that normally required a turret to mount it on, so I stuck close to him.

As usual, Bragg is carrying a vehcile mounted weapon in a man-portable manner.

Page 759

BAffels was laying on his belly a few metres tot eh right, using a spotter periscope to survey out over the shattered brickwork.[

Scouts seem to use stuff like this for peering over obstacles or presumably around corners. (As we see its more common in the later Ghosts novels)

page 760

The flickering of the daylight was being caused by bright las-roudns passing over us, almost invisible against the hard glare of the sky. Then a shot stung by against the bricks and I saw it clearly. A dart of seething fire, tinged red, the size of a man's middle finger, so bright it hurt my eyes, so fast it was barely there.

Las shot dimensions appare to be "finger wide" I should note I find it odd how they are described here, as if they wer elike SW blasters (visible to the naked eye, like "darts", etc." Of course we might assume this is just euphemistically applied and it is a beam, but later Abnett novels tend to revel in the penchant for bizarre "projectile like" lasgun behaviour.

We should note it regardless as being useful for various calcs (like the lasgun water vaporization calcs in Eye of Terror, or in Ghostmaker.)

Page 763

Then Mktag rose from his prone position like he had been jerked up from behind by his webbing. He twisted and fell over. For a moment, I didn't understand what was happening. It seemed as if Mktag was just behaving stupidly, mucking around, kicking with his legs.

But Mktag had been shot. Right there in front of me. He fell at my feet, his heels drumming the ground, his hands spasming. A tiny plume of smoke spiraled up from the little black hole a las-round had made in his forehead. There was no blood. The shot had cauterised the entry wound and it didn't have enough power to exit his skull. Its heat and force had been expended getting into his cranium and incinerating his brain.

It was quite simply the most awful thing I have ever seen. His body thrashing, trying to live, the brain extinguished. I think if there had been more blood, more obvious physical damage, I could have coped better.

But it was just such a tiny hole.

Las shot hitting a human head. If it literally incinerates the brain (about 1.5 kg) then the neergy involved would be over 4 MJ, not including cauterization or damag eto surrounding matter.

It is possible ti happened, but I am not entirely sure that a person's skull would remain intact after such (that would release alot of gas and translate into alot of pressure, honestly.) - it is possible that the gas escaped out of the entry wound, but again I'm doubtful. He may have had a helmet on but that's an uncertainty at best (and we cannot neccesarily assume it.)

Its more likely there was more partial incineration and that a greate rporrtion was boiled/cauterized , which would still rely on signifcant amounts of energy (1-2 MJ) but possibly less severe effects (vaporizing a 4 cm diamter channel through the skull would require at least 400-500 kilojoules. not including possible cauterization or boiling effects.)

The other part of the problem is how the shot affects a large area without explosive effects (superheating a small area then having a shockwave pass through it inflicting work heating) whcih would be, obviously, explosive (and probably shatter the back of the guy's skull.) Its possible if its based on the "bullet" like interpretation of las wepaons from early sources it may release energy omnidirectionally (rather than relying mor eon "point of impact" which could help this, but that is unconfirmed. then agin, considering how odd Abnett makes lasguns behave in latter novels (like projectile weapons or SW blasters basically) this may in fact be true. and the resulst would be unsurprising.

It is quite possible that given this guy is an artist and not a soldier, he could be getting these details wrong (especially given this is a recollection under a time of stress from sixty years earlier) On the other hand, he does speak as if he knows or learned about it, so maybe he did some research or asked questions to learn the facts (Again, context does hint this may be the case.)