Dreadnought

Dreadnought's History

A Dreadnought is a cybernetic combat walker of intermediate size used by the Chapters of the Adeptus Astartes as heavy infantry support for their Space Marine companies. The most common form of Dreadnought deployed in the late 41st Millennium is officially designated a Castraferrum Pattern Dreadnought.

Even the superhuman Space Marines are still mortal and can fall in battle despite legends to the contrary amongst the common people of the Imperium of Man. Dreadnoughts are war incarnate, towering machines that advance forwards with thunderous strides, fiery death roaring from the myriad of heavy weapons mounted on their hulls. They are terrifying foes, fighting with all the skill and ferocity of a Space Marine, but combined with the durability and firepower of a battle tank.

Dreadnoughts are often mistaken by mortal observers for huge suits of battle armour or robots; they are similar to both and yet neither. Dreadnoughts are a combination of armoured walker and cybernetic life-support system; their pilots are neurally linked straight into the Dreadnought's cybernetic systems, and are able to use the walker as if it were their own body, although they are permanently entombed within its Ceramite skin until they are destroyed.

When the greatest of the Astartes are crippled in combat the battle-brother's body will be repaired and transferred into an armoured cyborganic sarcophagus outfitted with extensive life support systems. This sarcophagus is then interred within the heart of the armoured torso of a Dreadnought if there is even a spark of life left.

The pilot himself survives only as a tightly curled and shrivelled organic component deep inside the Dreadnought, which is at once his reborn body and his tomb. Sustained and kept alive within the sarcophagus, the link between his physical being and the Dreadnought's systems is absolute and for the remainder of his life. The Space Marine within the sarcophagus will control the robotic body of the walker and experience the outside world through a web of cyborganic neural links and sensors implanted within his life support systems.

The sepulchre that contains a Chapter's Dreadnoughts is a holy shrine, and the Techmarines tend to their charges with great care, fastidiously applying sacred oils and unguents while chanting the Litanies of Preservation. To honour these courageous warriors, the fallen heroes are allowed to sleep away the Terran centuries, until need calls them to war once more.

The Space Marines encased within Dreadnoughts are often thousands of Terran years old. As a result of their great age, many Dreadnoughts, known as Venerable Dreadnoughts, are not only approached by their battle-brothers for support in combat, but also as advisors in the governance of their Chapter.

The oldest Dreadnought in the Imperium, Bjorn the Fell-Handed of the Space Wolves, was a member of the Primarch Leman Russ' retinue and fought in the Horus Heresy when he was still whole of body, making him well over 10,000 standard Terran years old. When the Dreadnoughts are not in use by their Chapter, they are placed back into the Chapter's chapel in its fortress-monastery to sleep away the centuries in a form of suspended animation until they are needed once more.

As they sleep, the sepulchres in the Armoury that houses Dreadnoughts are regarded as sacred shrines by the Dreadnoughts' battle-brothers, and Techmarines delicately anoint them with sacred balms and oils on a daily basis. Dreadnoughts are highly revered by their brothers for their wisdom and strength, and some Space Marines attend them to pay their respects even while they sleep.