The last of Crucible of War. four short stories. One Nathan Creed IIRc, one Uriel Ventris in a Space hulk, and one involving a freighter dealing with cultists. Oh yeah and a Doom Eagle sGrimdark Space Marine training short story.
Page 134
"Every male of age thirteen to be present at Table City upon the thirteenth day of the thirteenth lunar month of every year. By Imperial command."
Every year the same: the gliders would come to Kultoom and collect the youths. And sometimes, once in every decade, not all of them would return.
Inducted into the Imperial Navy, the rumour went.
Or sent as cannon fodder to fight the orks.
Or offered as a sacrifice to the Emperor's glory.
Or any one of a thousand different possibilities, all of them rich with uncertainty and legend.
As it turns out, they're inducted into the Space MArines. When it comes to tithing, I'm pretty sure they tend to look for alot older than 13. THe Astartes are a different story of course.
Page 134
The murmuring of thousands of youths arose throughout the chambers, a choir of fear and uncertainty.
A tithe of "thousands". Remember this for it becomes important later.
Page 135
They knelt in a line of some thirty youths - those dragged form the building in the skyport, Ica supposed on a rocky plateau.
..
Somewhere down there, Ica thought, is Table City, where thousands of bewildered youths are climbing back aboard gliders for the journey home..
Again "thousands", and groups of thirty.
Page 138
..and the ghostly vessel swept past in a multicoloured broadside, unleshing colossal energies in an actinic torpedo volley that punched gaping mouths into the blast shields, and a hundred thousand human ants wordlessly shrieked the last of their oxygen into the void....
..
...and on a million worlds a trillion humans sank to their knees and nothing would ever be the same again.
Some sort of psychic grimdarkery by the Doom Eagles Librarians as part of the training process. You know, DOOM. Implied 100,000 passenger (or crew) ship and the 'million/trillion' imperium bit.
Page 144
In one cavern a firestorm of shrapnel and smoke burst from some hidden aclove among the stalactites, reacting to the unblinking red eye of a motion sensor embedded in one wall. Some of the adolesecents lurked at the room's entrance, dividing their terrified glances between the rising water behind and that glarying ruby light, choosing who would live and who would die. Others rushed by, ducking and dodging. Their flesh and bone was dissolved in the resulting whirlwind of metal, screams ripped away in a rush of smoke and dust. A few - those who neither hesitated nor rushed - made it through.
Motion sensor triggered flechette/frag traps. I actually posted it for this bit, but the passage probably deserves some more elaboration for the Grimdark. See, these thousands of youths got recruited to be tested by the Doom Eagles to find potential Space Marine recruits. What they do is run these kids through what amounts to the Obstacle Course of Death - boiling steam, raging lava, exploding traps, etc. And end up slaughtering most of them in the process to find recruits. That pretty much is the whole story. GRimdark DOOM. At the end, only one recruit is chosen as well, so even more grimdark. So for the Doom Eagles you get one recruit or so for every thousands.
Page 182
Antrobus Vetch wasn't an imposing man physically. He was tiny, well under two metres tall, with spindly limbs and a head that seemed slightly overlarge in proportion to the rest of his body.
"Well under two metres" is not considered "imposing" and "tiny" on this planet at least. Of course, there's a pretty wide range of possibilities there, but it makes a diff (well under 1.8 meters for example) The choice of 2 metres as a benchmark seems interesting from some angle, since by real life standards a 2 meter tall guy would be well.. INSANELY tall.
Page 184
In a series of small explosions the photon flash flare grenades detonated. The effect was that of three small suns going supernova in the centre of the compound, bathing the treatment plant and the Delaques in blinding white light.
Photo-visor in place, Nathan Creed - downhive desperado, hired gun and sharp-shooting bounty hunter - grabbed the chain links of the fence in front of him and started to climb.
Necromunda, since we've got Delqaues. Note the bounty hunter using a photo visor, since Necromunda despite being a raving hell hole is a high tech raving hellhole, even in the underhive.
Page 184
A third shot shattered the padlock holding the gates shut.
Creed's stub gun. Whether this is impressive or not.. *shrug*
Page 185
- an underhive surgeon and "scientist". As noted in Fleshworks the underhive tends not to be a place where AdMech dogma takes root, save in very exceptional places. (Then again its not considered an especially high technology place either.)
Were such folk swept up in tithing for the Guard or Navy, I imagine these skills would find some use. Such organizations are filled with unoffficial "technical" types.
Page 187
The procedure had a near legendary status among the medical practitioners of the Underhive. The process was complicated but basically involved extracting, and then purifying, fluid form the brain of a subject. The resulting extract, once mixed with a cocktail of stimms, could then be injected into the brain of another, giving the receiver the original subject's memories. It was rumoured that some uphive nobles utilised the process to relive the thrill of exciting, dangeorus, or even life-threatening experiences without ever leaving the safety of the spire. Assuming the operation was successful, the only side-effect of a brain drain for the subject whas that it left them with large gaps in their memory. Those who injected the cerebral fluid of others into their own brains faced the prospect of a crippling addiction, culminating in a total loss of their own identity as the memories of others fractured their minds into a myraid of split personalities.
- Mention of a procedure that allows one human to extract certain brain fluids (god that sounds cheesy) and inject them into another. This process is supposed to transfer and implant memories from one person to another (Necromundan nobles are mentioned to use it to acquire experiences without risk, especially dangerous/exciting ones.)
Sounds goofy as well as cheesy, and I am betting you could probably do it better with a mind-impulse link. or via a psyker.
A mentioned side effect of the process is that the donor (or victim) is left with large gaps in their memory (if successful, so it seems there is an element of danger to the whole
process.)
Page 189
It was they who had sold him the information about Antrobus Vetch's operation to bring an ork into Hive Primus for Lord Helmwar's private zoo.
And it had been Haze who had leaked the same information to the authorities, forcing VEtch to dump the illegal alien in the Underhive.
Haze had planned to study the ork's regenerative abilities so that he might apply them to his own surgical skills, making his services invaluable to any Underhive gang.
the bit about studying Ork physiology to benefit human medicine aside, I do wonder how an(other) ork dumped into Necromunda, especially the underhive, survives. Hell by this point I'm sure Orks make up a substantial part of the unique Ecosystem that is the Underhive anyhow.
Page 192
The explosive bark of Creed's point-six-six calibre stub guns and the wild rattling chatter of the scummers, autopistols was joined by a chugging roar as the servitor, it smteal feet planted squarely on the ground, opened fire with its autocannon attachment mounted on the grotesuqely overlarge robotic right arm.
- mention here of "point six-six calibre" stub guns, revolvers - works out to around 16-17mm diameter bullets I think. Almost as big as bolter rounds. Recoil must be insane.
Page 193
The taller of the two scum had stupidly stuck his head around the side of a pillar to assess the situation only to have it blown off by a bolter shell.
Predictable effect of a bolt shell.
Page 197
Creed increased the pressure on his trigger fingers. Siuddenly he gave a yelp of pain and let go of both guns. Creed looked down at the palms of his hands. Both were covered in large red weals and blistering skin, which stung like a milliasaur bite. Inexplicably in a matter of seconds the metal of the stubbers had become white-hot, as if they had been heated in a furnace.
Effect of a psykokinetic attack. disregarding artwork exaggerations for weapon size and assume the guns weigh several kilos together (2-3 kg seems right for large bore revolvers) and around 1400K (
per here) and made of iron and a starting temp of 300K - it would require 1-2 MJ (roughly) being dumped into the guns within those "seconds". This is not a particularily STRONG psyker by 40K standards mind (unsanctioned).
Page 199
"You know what some tech-biologis believe about that part of the brain?"
..
Its popularly held in scientific circles that the cerebellum is the source of psychic powers"
"Wyrds." The bounty hunter said with a scowl.
"Exactly", Haze confirmed. "Only in some people these powers lie dormant in their subconscious. In most cases these powers never reveal thmselves, but then in others some catalyst awakens those latent powers - the onset of adolescence, a sharp blow to the head - "
"Having a bullet pushed into your brain by some lunatic surgeon?"
..
"And how do these powers manifest themselves?" Creed pressed
Some psykers can control others by willpower alone, others can move objects physically with their minds and some can manipulate the molecules in objects or even the air around them to heat them to boiling or melting point."
Confirmation about the level of power of the psyker (Wyrds are rather low level unsanctioned psykers.) Plus a bit of exposition that may provide hints as to the nature and origin of psychic behaviour and how it works with the link to the warp. Note no mention of the warp per se, but other abilities re mentioned.
Page 200-201
Mander immediately turned his piercing gaze on the running bounty hunter. Creed was sure he could see distant fires, burning like cold stars within the pyros' unblinking eyes. Creed faltered, feeling his whole body flush with heat, as if he had run five kilometres rather than five metres. He blinked as sweat ran into his eyes.
Putting a hand to the slick-wet skin of his forehead, he wiped the sweat from above his eyes. His brow felt like it was burning up as his body temperature soared. It was as if he was suffering from the worst case of sewer-swamp fever ever recorded. He could feel his soaking undershirt clinging to his back. Then he realised that even his bandages were becoming damp as sweat ran down his arms. He began to feel dizzy as the unbearable heat threatened to overcome him.
..
Turning, through sweat-blurred eyes Creed saw Doc Haze's horrified face mere metres away. Forcing his legs to move, overheating muscles protesting bitterly, the bounty hunter staggered foward, bundling the panicking scientiest in front of him. His head spinning, Creed saw the black ellipse of an open shaft ahead of them. As they closed the distance between themselves and the hole, Creed heard the sound of running water growing ever louder over the pounding of his own heart. At the same moment the smell of scorched leather assaulted his nostrils.
Looking down at his coat as he ran, Creed could see smoke rising from the battered material. With a whoomph the flapping coat tails burst into flame. Without a moment's hesitation the bounty hunter pulled the coat off and lfung it aside, losing his hat at the same time. Then the black gulf was before them and, shoving the doc ahead of him, Creed halfp jumped and half fell in the cold, enveloping darkness.
He hit the fast-flowing stream next to the dazed doc and a cloud of steam rose from the water around him. AT once Creed could feel his body temperature dropping to a more healthy level.
- the Necromundan pyro-psyker is able to (in a matter of seconds) raise the internal body temp of a person to fever point, but seems to have mcuh trouble beyond there (this may suggest that the body won't "combust" until its evenly heated, or a limitation of the psyker.) It actually does not take much of a temperature change in the body to do this by the Celsisu scale - 36-37C is normal, and anything over 40C is fatal, so we're talking less than a 5-10degree change. Even for a burly human (70-80 kg) and given a specific heat of the human body of around 3-3.5 KJ per kg*C we aren't talking a huge amount of energy - a few MJ over a matter of seconds again (if even that) could achieve it. It does set some nice lower limits on Psyker abilities.
Page 204
He could try and take Mander now: he was sure he could beat him in a fistfight, despite the pyro's obvious upper body strength. But would he be able to reach Mander before he cooked form the inside out?"
Earlier its mentioned the pyro is 10 metres away. I doubt his body had wholly recovered yet but even if literal "cooking" does not require a huge increase in temp, we'd still be talking single digit MJ over a short period of time in all probability.
Page 213
A few small spacecraft, mostly private merchant clippers, sat squat and silent, their hulls softly lit up orange by the sodium lamps that battled valiantly against the deepening dark. These ships, although large, were dwarfed by the vessel Drant looked out from. Guild freighter Sable Bess, nearly a kilometre from stubby snout to square cut fins, loomed up massively. Her holds were laden with military supplies destined for the Imperial Guard, and she patiently waited for departure at dawn.
- a "Guild freighter" of some kind is described as being nearly a kilometre long. "Private merchant clippers" mentioned are stated as being large, but smaller than the Guild freighter.
The freighter is also warp-capable, it shoudl be noted, and yet it can land on a planet. Its a bit crazy to have ships that big able to land on planets though (It was in the Star Wars prequels) - a good guess they use some sort of anti-gravity or reactionless "support" to support the ship when "landed"
Were I to guess he'd be some inter-sector Free Trader type.
Page 216-217
After a successful launch, with the planet Vrantis III receding into nothing more than a bright light behind her, the Sable Bess began preparations for the warp jump. Her decks were alive with activity as the crew busied themselves with maintenance and routine duties. Captain Matteus found Drant outside the infirmary.
"All well?" he asked.
Drant eyed him darkly. "Well enough. They're in hold one-forty."
..
"One minute," Eusoph sapped over the bridge-vox. "Be Ready."
The ship reaches its warp jump point (an unknown distance, but far enough away for the planet to be no longer visible) in a presumably short period of time (long enough for the refugees to be placed in a hold, and for the captain to check in with this and get to the bridge.) Less than a day, possibly less than 8-12 hours, given the lack of sleep and meals.
Page 218
A mass of cables and wires extruded from the mummified creature's face, linking him to the ship's navigation equipment and the engine servitors below decks..
Our Navigator. Note the apparent mind impulse links connecting him throughout the ship. Seen in a number of sources (FArseer, etc.)
Page 218
A deep booming throb began to seep up from the decks below, as the power unleashed from the wap core in the bowels of the ship was distributed to the engines themselves: the Machine God was awake.
Self explanatory. those silly AdMechs! But then again its often hinted a STarship has some level of sentience like a Titan does or a Land raider can, so maybe its not so surprising. I think i twould mean machine spirit though.
Page 219
The reserve navigator, curled up in his cot in a recess in the bulkhead and lost in a deep slumber, trwitched and whimpered.
they have a reserve navigator. Despite how beat up they look they must be pretty successful or important.
Page 219
For centuries the Sable Bess had been a tanker until she was downgraded to a dry freight vessel. She was now consigned to an easy routine, supplying non-essentials manufactured on Vrantis III to the Imperial Guard garrison on Jared's World, deep inside Imperium controlled space.
Guess I spoke too soon.
Page 224
..I want all tech-priests testing warding beacons and protective veins. Get them praying to their blasted Machine God...
"warding beacons" and "protective veins" - force field and physical defences against the warp apparently.
Page 228
- The ship's navigator had been sealed in his chamber for decades.
Page 229
For a moment the navigator was silent, probing the ship and the space around it with his sensitive psychic sense.
Navigator can use his psychic senses as a sensor, at least in local terms. This is seen in the Rogue Trader RPG as well.
Page 233
She spat an ugly command and the giant was lifted clean off his feet and hurled bodily out of the door as if he were rag doll tossed aside by a bored child. He smashed into the corridor wall, rupturing pipes.
a particularily large and burly (Bragg like perhaps) naval crewer, knocked about by warp TK.
Page 234
She uttered something and they were catapulted into the ceiling, skulls impacting with wet thuds. She held them there, then let them drop to the deck like unstrung puppets.
Two security ratings this time.
Page 238
The stacatto rattle of an autogun broke his reverie.
..
He emptied the magazine then wielded the gun like a club..
..
It fell over, crashing into a gantry rail, blood oozing from a dozen wounds.
- use of an autogun onboard a starship. Probably firing low velocity/high-mass bullets. Has a capacit yo fat least 12 rounds possibly (20-30 rounds possibly?) Also built like an OGryn ripper gun, it would seem.
Page 239
The shuttle was built to take the full crew complement of one hundred and forty five men. A tally revealed twleve left, including him.
Escape shuttle. Mentioned as being capable of carrying away the ship's entire crew complement of 145 crew for a 1 km long ship. Must be highly automated, or just that not being a warship its crew demands aren't that high.
Page 242
He had not slept in six days, his time on Macragge as full as he could ever remember it being. The majority of this time had been spent reorganizing the Fourth Company after the Pavonis expedition and inducting its newest members from the reserve companies, but he had made sure to set aside time for this work in the Artificers' forge chambers.
Ventris can go without sleep for six days, at least not when involved in strenuous activity (Then again he's also outside his armour.) The events of this story also take place (Chronologically) after Nightbringer, I believe.
Page 242
Upon his return from Pavonis he had immediately cast the metal icon taken from the Nightbringer's tomb into the deepest vault below the Fortress of Hera. Once removed from the Ctan's tomb, the metal had become utterly inert, dead to every form of auspex. Techmanne Harkus had at his disposal. It was resistant to every weapon, furnace heat or any other form of attack and resembled nothing so much as a simple piece of carved silver. With the disappearance of its diabolical master, it had become just a simple trophy of war. But such an artefact was too dangerous to be allowed to remain unguarded and sealed away forever in the depths of the Fortress of Hera, it was as secure as anything could be.
Confirmation of my earlier assessment of timeframe. We learn of the fate of the Nightbringer device (future plot point.) and a comment on just how indestructable it is.
Page 244
The Artificers had metriculators for measuring the exact line of a blade, but Uriel preferred the honest feel of a blade worked by hand and eye.
metriculators used as rulers or levels in fabircation. Uriel is much better than that of course.
Page 245d
The blade glowed a fierce red-orange and Uriel knew it was ready. He plunged it into a trough of water and oil, steam hissing angrily from the cooling metal.
He pulled the sword from the water and smiled as he turned his gaze to a velvet wrapped object on his workbench. As the sword blade cooled, he unwrapped the bundle, revealing the golden sword hilt that had once held the blade of Captain Idaeus's power sword. As he began the tempering process, he nodded to himself as he felt his former captain's silent approval. The hilt had remained in the Chapter's reliquary until Marneus Calgar, lord of the Ultramarines, had presented it to him as a mark of respect for his success on Pavonis. Uriel no longer needed the sword of his former captain to symbolize his authority over the Fourth Company, but Calgar had understood that Uriel well deserved to carry such a precious relic of the Ultramarines.
By morning he would have the weapon finished, its blade polished and sharp. Then he would take it to the chapel of the venerable Chaplain Cassius and have it anointed with clear water he had collected from the pool at the base of Hera's Falls, at the end of the Valley of Laponis. The Chaplain would sanctify the blade and entreat the spirits of war and battle to impart a measure of their wrath within the weapon.
Uriel forging the blade for his power weapon. Its unlikely to be "mono molecualr" or as nasty as the blade on your typical Marine combat knife, but since it sa power weapon that probably doesn't matter as much unless the powerfield (or Uriel's character shield) fails.
Page 246
Rusted iron girders formed a tangled lattice across the ice and steel, crude, airtight iron boxes bolted to the ice and rock in a jumble of metal. The hulk was perhaps seven kilometres in length, spinning pieces of debris rippling from the ungainly structures like entrails from a torn belly. In a way, the orkish engineering was a marvel of unwitting skill, luck and blind lunacy, though no member of the Adeptus Mechanicus would ever admit to such a thing.
Space Hulk described as being "seven kilometers" long.
Page 246
Its age was impossible to divinate with any degree of certainty. Perhaps it had plied the depths of space for tens of thousands of years before the orks had discovered it - or it had discovered them. Quite how such barbaric and warlike savages had the wherewithal to even get into space, let alone commandeer something so inherently dangerous, was a mystery that continued to baffle the priests of the Machine God. That the orks had ever managed to get their monstrously deformed contraptions space-worthy defied their every theorem.
Regardless of such apparent impossibility, once the orks deemed the hulk ready, it would be crammed full of warriors, with a vast power field bubble trapping the necessary oxygen and then hurled through space on a random course through the stars.
The hulk would ply the depths of space for an indeterminate time, sometimes dropping into the fluid medium of warp space as the ebb and flow of long-forgotten power sources surged and hurled the craft through the galaxy. Where and when such ships would emerge back into real-space - if they ever did - was a mystery to which no one could predict the answer.
If the orks were fortunate, the hulk would emerge in an inhabited system and if they were even luckier, crash on an inhabited planet. The strongest warlord who survived the crash landing would emerge to lead the others in an ork crusade known as a Waaagh!
To say it was a haphazard form of travel was an understatement of colossal proportions.
More general space hulk fluff. Not much to point out really.
Page 247
As it crossed the orbital path of Barbarus Prime, the ninth planet of the Tarsis Ultra system, a ship with crenellated weapon turrets and a cathedral-like command section emerged from the corona of the system's star and moved gracefully into a shadowing position. Beside her, the three smaller vessels of Arx Praetora squadron gathered in her shadow, ready to defend her against any attack.
The Ultramarines task force was hiding in the corona of a tar waiting for the space hulk. Note that we're in Tarsis Ultra. This would seem to be a transition story between Nightbringer and Warriors of Ultramar.
Page 247
"Philotas, do you have a firing solution locked in on the close-in surveyors yet?"
"Yes, sir," answered Philotas. "Shall I order battle stations?"
Astartes strike cruiser (and presumably escorts) use sensor assited targeting. Since Astartes ships run heavily on servitors.. probably no shock.
Page 247
"It's not travelling under its own power and it's a big one, that's for sure. It's no wonder the Tarsis Ultra system defence ships couldn't handle it. As to its course, it appears to be heading roughly towards the planet Chordelis. On its present heading it should pass out of the system without incident."
The Tarsis ultra system defence ships cannot demolish (easily) a 7 km long Space Hulk before it reaches the planet.
Page 248
"How did it arrive in system? A jump, or did it just drift in?"
"It just drifted in," said Philotas. "It appeared on the outer rim surveyors about five months ago, coming from below the galactic plane, but they are unmanned and the hulk did not pass close enough for a pict-capture. However, it passed dose enough to listening post Trajen for the adepts there to get a more precise fix on its position."
Outer rim surveyors. . part of the security setup of Tarsis Ultra. (listening posts, beacons, satellites and probes, etc.)
Page 248
"Can they estimate where it came from?"
"The senior magos believes it came from the regions of space we know to be controlled by an ork warlord known as the Arch Fiend of Octarius," replied Philotas
They manage to predict the possible origins of the Space Hulk. How they did (aside from technical means) we aren't specifically told.
Page 248
"Segmentum command at Bakka has issued several warnings of increased incidences of ork migrations from the realm of the Arch Fiend, but the strategos feel they are too fragmentary and disparate to be an invasion, and I agree."
Segmentum-scale command keeps track of large scale ork activity. Makes sense. The main purpose of "higher command" in 40K is for long term and strategic goals, while the tactical stuff is handled at the smaller level.
Page 248
"Aye," said Tiberus pointing at a fluctuating set of numerals at the side of the display, "but I do not think they will be alive. The mass readings look about right, but the mean internal temperature is probably too low and there does not appear to be enough interior oxygen voids for anything to survive - even orks. I think we are just looking at something that has split from an even larger ship, but we need to know for sure"
The Strike cruiser manages to scan the inside of the hulk.
Page 249
"Range to target?"
"Nine thousand kilometres, lord admiral."
- Space Marine Strike cruiser Vae Victus is 9,000 km from the Space Hulk at this point (and within weapons range.) Considering the ranges demonstrated in
Nightbringer by
Vae Victus, this isn't a great shock. It also hints that (with some time or effort) they could destroy the Space Hulk before it reaches the planet.
Page 250
Even now, almost a year after the Pavonis expedition, Uriel found it hard to adjust to the idea of Pasanius having a bionic replacement for the limb he had lost fighting the Nightbringer thousands of metres below the planet's surface. The arm shone like silver, its surface smooth and brilliantly reflective. Truly the artificers of Pavonis had excelled themselves.
- mentioned here that the battle between the Nightbringe rand Ultramarines as described in the
Nightbringer novel took place "thousands of metreS" below the surface of the planet and being a year ago.
Note the Necrodermis covered augmetic.
Page 254
Uriel disconnected his backpack from the gunship's own air tanks and sealed the valve, whispering the prayer of thanks to his armour's spirit as an icon flashed up on his visor, indicating that its integrity was intact. He checked that the air level in his armour's tanks was full and watched as his warriors followed suit.
Armor visor, and internal air tanks that connect to the gunship's own air supply.
Page 257
The walls were scorched black, pocked with fist-sized craters and Uriel knew immediately that they were weapon impacts; too large for most small arms fire and too shallow for heavy weapons.
Human ones at least.
He'd fought orks often enought o know that their weapons were easily capable of these kinds of impacts and opened a channel on the vox.
Damage Ork weapons can cause - they're also recognizable. Ork weapons implied to be more destructive than (normal) human weapons.
Page 257
"How far to the first waypoint?" asked Uriel.
Flavian consulted the auspex, scrolling through the display and said, "Two hundred metres, brother-captain. Along this corridor and right."
- Space MArine auspex onboard the hulk has a range of at least 200 metres. at least to waypoints. This may be a mapping function however, as its known that they can do that.
Page 258
Ahead, the corridor widened into a high ceilinged chamber of blue ice and swirling mist. Glittering shards of ice tumbled lazily through the air, catching the light from his armour's illuminator. Sparkling like miniature suns, Uriel realised that the crystals were floating in a zero-gravity environment. Whatever arcane devices or alien archaeotech had kept gravity functioning in other portions of the hulk was plainly not at work here.
"There is an area of weightlessness ahead," he voxed to the rest of his squad. "Engage boot magnets and switch to auto-senses; there is a great deal of airborne debris."
He stepped onwards, feeling the powerful grip his boots now had on the mesh of the deck beneath him. As he entered the chamber, he felt a lurch in his stomach as he suddenly became weightless. There had been no gradual change in environment, simply a switching from one state to another. Ice brushed against him and a spinning bar of metal rang against his thigh armour. His grip on the deck did not feel as secure as he would have liked, the thick ice on the floor preventing the magnetized soles of his boots from gaining a better purchase.
"Be on your guard, the ice is distorting my auto-senses. Pasanius, clear us a path through this mist."
- Ultramarines boots have magnets on them for adhering to surfaces in zero gee.
Page 258
"Aye, captain," said Pasanius, hefting his bulky flamer unit as easily as another Space Marine might carry a boltgun. The veteran sergeant unleashed a whooshing tongue of flame into the mist, a hiss of ice flashing to steam and liquid droplets exploded away from the fires.
But rather than simply dissipating, the liquid promethium rolled in the air, miniature infernos spinning through the chamber as the fire revelled in the sensation of weightlessness. Removed from the tyranny of gravity, the flames slid like liquid through the air, rippling in strangely lifelike ways. Adhering to icy pieces of tumbling refuse, the splintered fire lit the chamber with the glow of a million dancing fireflies.
Space Marine flamer. Not really calable.
Page 259
The huge body before him was frozen utterly solid, its wide fanged mouth twisted in a last roar of aggression. Its torso was ripped open in a dozen places and glistening entrails, frozen as they spilled from its belly, coiled around its meaty fists.
"It froze to death while trying to push its guts back inside," said Pasanius.
Uriel nodded. "And I just bet it would have survived had the cold not killed it. Obviously the chamber froze before the gravity failed"
- mention of an Ork probably surviving having its torso eviscerated and entrails pulled out.
Page 260
URIEL PANNED HIS shoulder-mounted illuminator around the columned chamber, noting the reading of his heartbeat in the lower left corner of his visor display. Higher than normal, he saw, though he wasn't surprised. This place was damned, cursed, and reeked of death"
- Ultramarine visor displays have a heartbeat monitor. Presumably they monitor other life signs and functions as well.
Page 263
Uriel slung his bolter and drew his power sword as a massive, iron-jawed ork charged him, swinging a gigantic cleaver with a howling chainsaw blade. Thick sheets of metal were strapped over its shoulders and chest and Uriel leapt to meet the ork, lunging for its unprotected midriff. His sword plunged effortlessly through its flesh, sliding dear with a burning hiss.
The beast roared and bellowed something incomprehensible before swinging its cleaver at his head. Uriel almost failed to dodge, such was his surprise at the beast still being alive. He knew orks could withstand terrible damage, but he had practically cut this one in two!
- Uriel is astonished that an Ork could survive a sword cut from his power sword that "nearly cut it in two."
Page 264
In the midst of the furious combat, Uriel saw a hulking ork with a massive, piston-driven claw powering his way through the Ultramarines. Blue-armoured bodies were hurled through the air by the ork, black smoke belching from its rusted weapon and a bellowing roar of fury echoing from the walls.
Armoured in rusted plates of metal that would have taken four strong men to lift, the ork was a powerhouse of primal brutality. Thick, corded muscles bulged on its upper limbs and great slabs of meat layered its chest. A black, horned helm crowned a monstrous, scarred face and burning red eyes. Viscous spittle sprayed from between yellowed tusks, each the length of Uriel's forearm. Bigger than all the others, Uriel knew it must be the war-leader of this particular band of orks and pushed his way through the melee towards it.
Described as the "war leader" of this particular band. Naturally Uriel takes it on personally.
Page 265
He lunged and thrust his sword into the ork's chest. The blade hissed as it penetrated the sheets of iron and the stench of charred alien flesh assailed him.
Power sword with field on penetrates iron plate armor around Orks body and burns the flesh.
Page 266
Uriel did not give the wounded beast time to recover, stepping close and hacking at its flesh like a butcher. Each blow sheared slabs of alien flesh from his foe and even after the brutish monster fell dead at his feet, he chopped in a killing frenzy until the ork was little more than sizzling chunks of scorched meat.
Again, Uriel's power sword has little trouble cutting through the Ork armor and burning its flesh.
Page 267
"Brother-Captain, this is where your power blade cut the xenos. As you can see, the edges of the wound are smooth and cauterised from the heat of your weapon."
The Apothecary then rolled the ork onto its side and pointed to a wound running from its left shoulder to the base of its ribs on the right hand side of its torso.
"So what are we looking at here, Selenus?" asked Pasanius.
"The blow that caused this wound cut through the creature's armour plating on its shoulders and sheared through the thickly ossified bone of its ribs with something incredibly sharp."
"Another power weapon?" suggested PAsanius.
Selenus shook his head. "No, the edges of this wound have not sealed or been seareed as the wounds on its front have been. This was done by something so sharp it was able to cut through iron and ork flesh with almost no effort at all."
Power weapons cauterize and emit heat.
They later note it was a genestealer blade, and that it is sharper than a power weapon (or Uriel's at least) without using heat.
Ork warleader is described as having "thickly ossified bones" in its ribs.
Page 272
A crackling voice that Uriel recognized as belonging to Learchus said, "Brother-Captain, our auspex reads that we are less than three kilometres from your current position. We can come to your assistance."
"No," ordered Uriel, "continue on towards your evacuation point."
Range of auspex readers. Presumably the other Marines have beacons to help, but they'd be obscured by the hulk's mass as well.
Page 277
Each boxy device was fitted with six kilos of a high explosive compound developed specifically for the destruction of space huulks.
The demolition charges had a wide blast area, and the destructive power unleashed within that area an order of magnitude greater than almost any other explosive of similar size
The timer mechanisms had all been calibrated from a single master unit aboard the Vae Victus and thus every single bomb detonated within a nanosecond of each other.
Coordinated detonation. note that this is a "high explosive compound" designed specificialyl for destroying space hulks and that the destructive power unleashed was "an order of magnitude greater" than any explosive of similar size. Six kilos is not alot of explosive, but note this for comment later.
Page 278
As each bomb exploded it instantly vaporised an area one hundred metres in diameter with a huge, reverberating thunderclap.
The sounds of the massive explosions spread throughout the hulk, and positioned throughout the ship at key structural points, the effects were devastating.
Agglomerated structures tore free from the hulk's side as their supports were blasted clear, ripping gantries and beams with them. All across the Death of Virtue, the structural integrity of the hulk collapsed at an exponential rate as the explosive echoes died.
The explosion from each demolition charge roared into a seething ball of plasma energy, burning with the heat of a star. Those charges closer to the centre of the hulk, where the internal gravity field was strongest, dropped through the deck, turning the core of the hulk molten as they fell.
I think its pretty safe to say that "high explosive" in this case means "weird plasma ball thingy" - some sort of "plasma explosive" of the Ben Counter persuasion. I dont think we can treat it as a conventional nuclear explosion, since it seems to be a self sustaining event and dense enough gravity can acutally pull it down.
It's hard to pin down precise calcs for this one, simply because theres alot of assumption involved in any way it could possibly be done. One could assume a 100 meter diameter sphere of the hulk was vaporized but we dont know the internals and (as someone will object) vaporize may not be taken literally (though in this case I'm inclined to do so, since in context it sounds like the creation of a plasma/fireball sphere.) If we assumed a 100 m diameter sphere 99% empty space and 1% iron it would be around ~300 TJ. That places it around the yield of "nuclear" explosives per kg I think, within an OoM (with some allowance for better if we assumed the best 40k Had was just nukes. Which isn't the case.) If it were a 100 m diameter nuclear fireball (which it isn't) it would be just a few kilotons, but that has the aformentioned (gravity affected glob of plasma) problems. If we assumed it was a sphere of high temperature gas (and ignored how it was contained) we might get into double or triple digit TJ (assuming around 1-10 thousand K temp, though getting to millions would be higher) again, but it's again not a normal plasma.
"heat of a star" does not help in this case since "heat" while technically a kind of energy can vary according to context (and could refer to temp, total energy, or any number of possibilities.) Nevermind that it would also imply gigatons or teratons or petatons of energy out of 6 kg of explosive. Possibly works on the low end (gigatons only) but that's even a bit outlandish for my calcs if we go with anything on the TT/PT end, and its still hinging on a nebulous interpretation on this case, so w ecan't rely on that.
If we based it on the Sin of Damnation bit from Space hulk first edition (300 560 GT torpedoes) it might take 168 TT to destroy the hulk. we know its a 7 km diameter hulk and each explosion was 100 m diameter.. upwards of 2,000 tons of explosive would be needed to match that, and it would work out to 84 MT per kg. I'll leave that up to personal interpretation as to how plausible/insane that is, given I've outlined my mindset on 40K energy generation (and will be elaborating on it in the future) - basically its a possibility, but it involves magictch to make work. The problem with tihs calc in any case is that we dont know if the SoD is anywhere near like this hulk in size or composition, hulks can be too variable for this to work, and aren't inert sturctures as a rule in any case (they've been blown up deliberately in the past by internal detonations) and ther eis the whole "inertnal vs external desturction" bit too.
So we're left with alot of possibilities and hints, but nothing really definite other than "its some weird 40K plasma like stuff explosion 10x better than anything the Imperium has elsewise which may or may not include nuclear explosives like was mentioned in space fleet.") and nothign else.
Page 280
The Thunderhawk's landing gear was up, but Uriel saw the forward ramp was still lowered. The heavy bolters mounted on either side of the gunship's frontal section roared, the noise deafening as heavy calibre shells ripped up the chamber. Genestealers, ice and steel disintegrated under the devastating fusillade as the pilot swung the nose of the gunship left and right.
Heavy bolters vs various materials.
Page 281
But then the genestealer's head exploded as bolter shells ripped it from its body. Blood and brains spilled over Uriel's armour and he threw the creature's corpse aside in disgust.
Multiple bolter rounds blow apart a genestealer head. We dont know how many though.
