Skitarius (Warhammer 40K: Adeptus Mechanicus) 3Stars

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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.

• Mark’s Review of Skitarius

• Dave’s Review of Skitarius