Forces of the Taghmata – Datasheets

[ No filterArchimandriteCyberneticaLacrymaertaMacrotekMalagraMyrmidaxReductor ]

Though he would become one of the most reviled of the Dark Mechanicum, Draykavac was an all but unknown figure before the civil war of the Warmaster’s betrayal sundered the Imperium. This bestially masked and black-robed magos served as the chief military emissary of the Forge World of Cyclothrathe and the foremost field commander of its Taghmata, answerable only to the sinister and hidden tribunal which ruled his lightning-wracked world. At the head of Cyclothrathe’s vast Taghmata and allied knights, he cut a bloody swathe across the Imperium.

The history of Anacharis Scoria has been lost, but there exists fragmentary evidence that places him as a magos dominus in the service of Xana some thirty years before the outbreak of the Horus Heresy. It is believed he was gifted the rank of the Vodian Magister - the chief enforcer of cult doctrine on his secretive world, but some time after that he was cast down until the time of the Loyalist covert operation known as the Xana Incursion. In the aftermath of that disaster, Xana’s ruling Synod was destroyed in a bloody coup from which Scoria emerged far more powerful than before.

Unlike the more commonplace adepts of the Mechanicum, many of those magi dedicated to the Malagra train not only in artifice and research, but also in the visceral arts of combat. Tasked with hunting down and eliminating tech-heretics of all kinds, the Arcuitor Magisterium are deadly close quarters combatants and more than capable of holding their own against any foe. Given their specific skills these adepts rarely serve as the commanders of armies, but rather as advisors - tasked with making sure that those they serve remain true to the teachings of the Mechanicum.

A variant of the ancient and versatile Conqueror automata STC, the Arlatax’s development, which was the work of the magoswrights of Xana, would do much to influence the later design of the Domitar. Beyond the Taghmata and Skitarii forces of that Forge World, the pattern never gained wide acceptance, despite its excellent performance as a rapid-moving shock assault unit. The idiosyncratic choice of certain components in the battle-automata’s designs were not approved by the remit of Mars, making refit and repair difficult for those without a direct line to Xana’s resources.

The Domitar battle-automata represent the pinnacle of the Cybernetica’s art. Fast, strong, heavily armed and more cunning than lesser automata, these fearsome war machines form the elite of the automata host and are more than a match for any force that can be set against them. Capable of attacking and defeating almost any foe, from massed infantry to armoured vehicles, the Domitar’s only weakness is the complex nature of its creation. Each such iron colossus can only be created by the most talented magi, and is the result of long months of labour with the finest materials available.

Much like their Secutor brethren, the Myrmidon Destructors view combat as a method by which they might divine the will of the Omnissiah. However, they do so through the thunder of heavy guns, the blast of plasma and searing pulse of rad-flame. For these towering ancients, each salvo is a prayer and each battle won a humble offering to the Omnissiah. Such is the power of their onslaught that the Magos Militant of a Forge World will go to great lengths to seek out and recruit such warriors when conflict looms and the horns of war sound.

The hulking adepts of the Myrmidax, known as Myrmidons, have rebuilt their bodies as living weapons. Tall, fearsomely strong and fitted with a variety of esoteric weapons, a Myrmidon is the equal of any other warrior - even the Emperor’s Space Marines. The Secutors are a sub-cult of the Myrmidax order devoted to the pursuit of close order combat, plying their own formidable strength against that of the foe in an effort to distil wisdom from conflict. The Secutors see combat as a meditation and battle as a worshipful paean in honour of the Omnissiah, from which they will gain enlightenment.

The Decimator is a brutal and hellish creation some Imperial scholars theorise began as an attempt to counter the strength of the Leviathan dreadnought; the Emperor’s creation of the latter filed many amongst the Mechanicum with unease. During the Horus Heresy, the Dark Mechanicum repurposed the Decimator into a warp-infused engine of destruction, provided to the Legions who had sporadic access to new dreadnoughts. Encased in slab-like plating of ceramite and adamantine, the Decimator operates as a shock troop and line breaker on the battlefeld.

In battle, the adepts of the Cybernetica have long separated their Castellax automata into the massed hammerblow of battle maniples and the precise strike of Destructor maniples. Castellax outfitted to the Destructor pattern wield a variety of heavy weapons intended to eliminate enemy armour or to annihilate heavy infantry. They serve to exterminate the toughest enemy threats once they have been isolated and identified by the attack of the more expendable battle maniples that proceed them. For the weapons borne by these automata are too rare and valuable to risk on the front lines.

The Ursarax are the root of the long running feud between the Reductor cult and the adepts of the Lacrymaerta, for they stem from the same technology that created the Thallax. Cybernetic entities that combine both machine and organic components, the Ursarax do not attempt to control the terrible pain that torments them, but instead are forced to embrace it by their cruel masters. Equipped to rip, tear and smash the foe at close range, Ursarax are unleashed rather than deployed, racing across the battlefield in a frenzy to assault the foe.

As the Horus Heresy progressed arid the Legions suffered upon the anvil of war, many sought the means to supplement their forces with new tools of destruction. The Blood Slaughterer was one such tool, theorised by Imperial scholars to have been devised as a less costly replacement for dreadnought losses incurred by the World Eaters Legion. Standing taller than a Castraferrum dreadnought, packs of the hunched automata were utilised as line breakers and imbued with a singular purpose - unrelenting carnage.

The robust castellax is the most widely used combat automata in the ranks of the Cybernetica. Its combination of powerful short range weaponry’ and toughened armour has been proven on thousands of battlefields and against uncounted foes, and few magi would dare to impugn such a venerable design. On the battlefield these hulking automata serve as the iron frontline of any Taghmata, advancing en-masse to break enemy lines like a hammer, or standing in serried ranks as an unyielding defence against any attack.

The vast throngs of human serfs that dwell on Forge Worlds serve two simple purposes: labourers for the unending cycle of production that rules such worlds, and as stock for conversion to thralls and servitors. In times of both war and increased production the adepts of the Lacrymaerta, which manages the human throngs of each forge, cull the worker herd and take thousands to their grim hutcher-halls. There they are rendered into augmented thralls, servitors outfitted for increased speed and strength, but at the cost of a limited span of useful operation.

Tech-thrall covenants intended for purely defensive operations, or for deployment in the confines of Zone Mortalis engagements are sometimes issued mitra-locks instead of las-locks. These weapons emit a volatile spread of energy bolts that, while individually less powerful, cover a much wider area and prove formidable weapons for defending a fixed position or slowing the advance of a superior foe through dense terrain. However, as these weapons leave Tech-thrall units vulnerable to being outranged and picked apart before they can engage, they are rarely issued en masse.

These complex cyborgs serve the adepts of the Reductor as shock troops and enforcers. Created in a process that is a long-held secret of the Reductor Cult, a living human nervous system is spliced into a hardened exoskeleton to create a warrior that is not only fast and deadly, but also armoured beyond the capabilities of any mortal recruit. With a compact jet pack fused into their armour and armed with a variety of esoteric weapons, the Thallax provide much needed mobile firepower to any Taghmata. Their only deficiency is that the process of their creation leaves the intelligence that guides them tormented by unending pain.

These towering war engines are dedicated to a single purpose - the destruction of the enemy at long range. Armed with potent weaponry and almost impregnable armour, they stand as the fulcrum of any Cybernetica host and the banner of the Taghma as it advances. Simple by the standards of other automata, their cortex knows nothing of subtlety or restraint and once unleashed will simply advance and attack without stopping until destroyed or called off. Fortunately, their armour and weapons are potent enough that few can stand against them in open battle.

The Macrocarid are a broad classification of heavily armoured and fully environmentally sealed vehicles used as both frontline combat, mobile command and exploration vehicles by magi of the Macrotek order of the Mechanicum. No two Macrocarid are the same, each having been extensively customised and upgraded by its creator, and serving as an expression of that magi’s skills and rank within the order. However, each is a formidable engine of war and easily the match for the Land Raiders of the Legiones Astartes.

Fast and deadly, the Vorax automata ranges ahead of the main Cybernetica host, seeking out and destroying enemy skirmishers and targets of opportunity. Its cybernetica cortex is known for the cruel streak buried in its sub-routines, and in battle it makes a gruesome mess of those foes it can catch. Its weapons lack the ability to deal with heavy armour, but are perfectly suited to rend and tear infantry and even lightly armoured vehicles. While they lack the brutal firepower of larger automata, the Vorax are amongst the most feared of their kind, with few infantry’forces willing to hold in the face of a massed charge of such monsters.

Vultarax automata make use of a more complex cortex unit that allows them to control the various gravitic impellers and jets that hold them aloft, and grant them more affinity for independent action. On the battlef eld these large airborne units rove ahead of the main force, charting the enemy’s positions and attacking vulnerable outposts or isolated units. Armed with phosphex warheads and a potent arc blaster, the Vultarax is more than capable of devastating enemy positions and is fast enough to escape most units that could threaten it in open combat.