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Title:
Skitarius
Series: Warhammer 40K: Adeptus
Mechanicus
Author: Rob Sanders
Rating:
3 of 5 Stars
Genre: SF
Pages:
152
Words: 54K
Publish: 2015
Every
time I read a set of novels about a new faction in the Warhammer
40,000 universe, it’s like learning to swim all over again. You get
tossed in and are expected to sink or swim.
Once
again, I was doing a buddy read with Mark and Dave. I was asking
questions and Mark made the apt remark “I think you are expecting
too much for this to make sense. It is WH40K after all!” Which fits
with almost every experience I’ve had with these books. You just
have to accept that “things are this way because we said so” and
go from there.
The
Adeptus Mechanicus is a group of people who colonized Mars back in
the day and became expert mechanics. Eventually, they began
worshiping the Ghost in the Machine, called the Omnissiah, and their
theology taught that the mechanical was better than the biological.
This of course led them to turn themselves into cyborgs and the more
mechanized you were, the better. They eventually allied with the
Empire of Man and jiggered their theology to say that the Emperor was
an Aspect of the Omnissiah. So now they go around trying to discover
lost knowledge, which will allow them to get closer to the Omnissiah.
And obliterating any impure mechanics throughout the universe. Blood
thirsty fellows, just like everybody else in the WH40K universe,
sigh.
So
this story is about a skitarii by the name of Stroika (kind of like a
captain in the army I gather) as he is tasked with recovering the
data banks from a world that was lost to Chaos and since recovered.
The guy over him is totally unprepared but sends in the forces anyway
and Stroika has to do the best he can, knowing he’s been shafted
from the get-go. Then, in typical WH40K manner, there is a massive
twist where everything turns out to be have been a trap anyway, so
poor old Stroika gets extra shafted. And he doesn’t even get to die
at the end. He is captured and tortured until he is chaos broken and
totally insane.
AND
IT GETS BETTER!
His
mentor has been in nearby space with a hidden fleet, the whole time.
But lets it play out because he doesn’t like Stroika’s new boss.
How’s that for a kick in the ballz? Yeah, there’s a reason I’m
careful about the number of WH40K books I read in a year. Of course,
I’ve got the immediate sequel, Tech Priest, scheduled
for review for tomorrow. Hold on to your biologicals or they might
get stolen.
This
particular book was in an omnibus called “Adeptus Mechanicus”
and that is the cover I’m
using in the featured image. However, each book in that omnibus was
also released singly and I would like to showcase that cover, much
like I did in my currently reading post at the beginning of the
month. Can’t have too many cool looking covers after all!
That
pistol looking thing the guy on the cover is holding? That is
basically an amped up taser. Sigh. Come on guys, use bullets, or at
least some sort of gauss technology that destroys matter on contact.
★★★☆☆
From
wh40k.lexicanum.com & Bookstooge
The skitarii are
the soldiers of the Machine God, the tireless legions of
the Adeptus Mechanicus. Holy warriors, they carry the word of
the Omnissiah across the galaxy, destroying the impure
machines of aliens and renegades and spearheading the Quest for
Knowledge. A discovery of ancient technology sends a skitarii legion,
commanded by Alpha Primus Haldron-44 Stroika, into battle on a forge
world overrun by Chaos. When a cataclysm cuts him off from
his tech-priest overseers, Stroika must rally his forces
and battle corrupt machines and Chaos Space Marines if he
is to achieve victory.
Discovery
of the wreck of an ancient colony ship, the Stella-Xenithica,
by Magos Explorator Omnid Torquora, thrusts Stroika and his
skitarii into a pitch battle with feral Orks who have settled within
the remains. Finally victorious, an STC of an ancient
technology, termed the Geller Device, is found and returned to
the forge world Satzica Secundus. In a live test of the
prototype, the lost forge world Velchanos Magna is
uncovered. In their haste to recover the forge world and defeat the
Dark Mechanicum, Stroika and his forces are overextended, but,
despite the odds, they are on the cusp of victory when an Iron
Warriors battle group under the command of Idriss
Krendl and his Obliteratii arrive. The Iron Warriors
flagship, Forgebreaker, destroys the Ark Mechanicus Opus
Machina, isolating Stroika and the expeditionary force, forcing him
to execute a daring plan.
The
plan fails, only Stroika survives, but he is kept alive to be
tortured and corrupted by the Iron Warriors, Chaos Space Marines. All
this happens and is witnessed by Omnid Torquora, who has been hiding
in the planets shadow the entire time with his own battle group.
