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Castellax Class Battle-Automata Omega-Pi-Seven

A Castellax-class Battle-Automata assigned to provide infantry support to the Legio Gryphonicus Titan Legion.

The Castellax-class Battle-Automata is the most common pattern of the widespread Castellan-type Battle-Automata in service to the mysterious Legio Cybernetica and serves as a general robotic battle unit developed during the Great Crusade from its ancient forebear.

Primarily intended for siege work and shock assaults, the Castellax Battle-Automata is a hulking humanoid machine with a notoriously aggressive and responsive Machine Spirit, and an enviable reputation on the battlefield. The Castellax, employed in units of one to five robots by the Legio Cybernetica, has a standard configuration of bolter and Mauler Bolt Cannon armament that allows it to serve in a potent infantry support role.

History[]

The most common Castellan-type Robot in service with the Imperium is the Castellax-class. Developed from its ancient forebears, it was primarily intended for siege work and shock assaults. The Castellax Battle-Automata is a hulking humanoid machine thrice the height of a man, with a notoriously aggressive and responsive Machine Spirit and an enviable reputation on the battlefield.

Its armoured endoskeleton is proof against small-arms fire and highly resistant to damage thanks to its durable design and the presence of the same Atomantic Shielding technology that features on the Legiones Astartes Contemptor Pattern Dreadnought. The Castellax, employed in large numbers by the Legio Cybernetica, has a standard weapons configuration of bolter and Mauler Bolt Cannon armament, and is able to maintain a punishing barrage of firepower as it advances.

Rarer configurations, however, included Battle-Automata equipped with Flamer weapons or the arcane and powerful Darkfire Heavy Photon Thruster Cannon. During the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy, many Solar Auxilia cohorts and Legiones Astartes units went to war accompanied by attached Cybernetica maniples. Some were bonded by compacts forged in the crucibles of war, and the Battle-Automata even bore the same colours and heraldry as the auxiliaries or Space Marine Legions themselves.

The Castellax-class was a mainstay both of the Legio Cybernetica and the elite defensive formations of many Forge Worlds, who relied on its formidable power for their protection. Some in the Imperial hierarchy saw the steady increase in the number of these war machines as a sleeping threat to the supremacy of the Imperium should the Mechanicum ever default on its treaty of mutual support with the Emperor.

History was to take a different course, and in a few short standard years with the outbreak of the Horus Heresy, thousands of these war engines would be broken on the wheel of war, and the Castellax was never to be seen again in such numbers.

Wargear[]

Castellax-1b

A Castellax-class Battle-Automata displaying its fearsome array of weapons.

  • Mauler Bolt Cannon - The ancient Mechanicum utilised a variety of bolter weaponry which, while operating on similar principles to the standardised weapons of the Legiones Astartes, were often more sophisticated and difficult to maintain. Such weapons include the Mauler Pattern Bolt Cannon, a fearsomely-baroque and bulky automatic cannon using substantially larger and denser shells than a standard Heavy Bolter.
  • Shock Chargers - Used to augment the combat power of Legio Cybernetica Battle-Automata, these devices amplify the force of the Battle-Automata's physical blows with powerful electrostatic discharges which detonate like thunderclaps when striking their target.
  • Atomantic Shielding - Certain Battle-Automata featured particularly powerful Atomantic Reactor cores designed to energise defensive field generators built into the Battle-Automata's exterior armour plating, as well as power its combat systems.

Upgrades[]

  • Infravisor - This simple visor allows its user a wide range of spectrums. So equipped, they can see better in low-light conditions than a normal human could see in optimal daylight.
  • Enhanced Targeting Array - Certain Battle-Automata are fitted with additional slaved Cogitators and sub-incunabula machine-spirits devoted to relentlessly tracking and targetting any and all potential threats in range.
  • 2 Battle-Automata Power Blades - These close-combat weapons are fitted to the primary weapon-limbs of some Battle-Automata. Their sabre-like blades use molecular disruption fields super-charged with power from the Battle-Automata's Atomantic Reactor core.
  • Siege Wrecker - This is a general term for a specialised form of massive close combat weapon intended for Legiones Astartes Dreadnoughts and Mechanicum Battle-Automata. Wreckers are designed to enable these heavy assault units to smash through fortifications and easily crush armoured barricades and defences in siege warfare. The most common form of this weapon is a hydraulic ram or massive disruption field-augmented hammer, although specialised forms of heavy claw or drill systems are also used.

See Also[]

  • Castellax-Achea-class Battle-Automata

Sources[]

Gallery[]

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