The Armor Bay was filled with the sounds and sights of Marines gearing up for war.

Footfalls from hundreds of power armored boots echoed throughout the cavernous multi-tiered chamber like the rumbling of a distant storm. The whine of plasma weaponry being subject to test charges, and the subtle rasp of armor added to the din.

Marine Corporal Ryan Taylor marched up to one of dozens of arming booths that were set against the wall. It was a large, seven foot high unit with two curving doors and a small interface on the right side. Walking up to this panel, Ryan placed his forehead against a curved pad above a retinal scanner which automatically checked his identity.

"Identity confirmed: Corporal Ryan Talor. 203Rd Legion. 42nd Marines." A synthetic female voice announced. The interface lit up, showing a three-dimensional picture of his CD-750 series powered assault armor, still in the same gray coloration he had left it in. He quickly updated the camouflage settings from default gray to Desert Brown. After confirming all other settings, the booth cycled open, allowing for him to step through.

In the center of the floor was a pair of large soles for his power armor, which had been cycled automatically from storage and delivered to this booth. Stepping into the soles with a locking click, the black under-suit he was wearing mated firmly to the soles.

The booth whined to life, filling the small space with the noise. From the walls, dexterous servo arms bearing sections of armor and endosteel frame moved around him. Black ribbed pieces of reactive CNT muscle fiber were pressed onto his body, adhering to the undersuit and connecting together like a complex puzzle around his body. The armored endosteel frame was then applied, a series of rigid, brown camouflaged angled plates were arranged strategically over his body along with impact reactive flexi-mesh armor that filled out the places rigid plates would not work. The power plant was attached to his back, it's gentle curve giving him a slightly hunched profile, the molded torso plate which featured the heaviest armor greatly exaggerated his physique was locked to the hardpoints connecting to the power plant. A gauntlets slipped upon his forearms, locking onto the bicep plates, his hands were locked into emulators which controlled the robotic hand extensions which were necessary to keep the suit in proportion with the body. A pair of kite shield shaped, reactive pauldrons were lowered onto his shoulders, integrating themselves into the rest of the suit automatically.

Finally the power plant was remotely activated, breathing life into the muscle fiber network and the electromagnetic servomotors that made the suit movable. Ryan winced as pins pierced into his spine and tapped into his nervous system, translating his impulses into digital format so the suit would perfectly mimic his movements.

He turned the right hand extension palm up, flexing the fingers experimentally and touched the inside of the palm to test the tactile sensors in the fingers. It was working normally.

Finally with a mental command the helmet unfolded from the collar and encased his head in it's solid protection, granting him vision through a pair of crimson lens plates. A HUD imposed itself on his vision, displaying the various 'housekeeping' functions checking off. Refractor shields activated. The entire process had taken two minutes. Now it was time for arming.

A trio of plasma grenades were attached to his mag-harness by the servo arms, a Perdition-pattern Volkite pistol was clamped to the top of his right thigh plate. Four large power packs for his main weapon system.

The weapon said ammunition belonged to was a H&K M244-X Plasma Assault Rifle. It was a rather large weapon, a 4.6 feet long from end to end, and weighed approximately thirty-two pounds. Along it's sleek body were diagonal slit venting ports located just behind the barrel, and again above the ammunition lock. The collection chamber glowed a soft blue, itself protected by a heat resistant cowling. Underslung beneath the barrel was an 'Arclight' plasma based flamer for a secondary fire function. On top of the gun was a remote optical scope, which fed information directly to his HUD.

The gun was suspended on a rack in front of him, he reached out and accepted the weapon, his armor's gauntlet automatically assuming a firm and steady grip.

The arming process now over, Ryan awaited the final phase. ABACOS.

Jacking into the system was not something he could easily describe, it was a sensation completely alien to the human norm. It felt like cold water was being poured upon his brain, and the awareness of a 'sixth' sense, technopathy was the official designation of the phenomenon. He was immediately aware of the position and base vitals of his entire unit.

Of all the weapons the Enclave forces had at their disposal, ABACOS was by far one of the most powerful. It had the power to greatly ease a soldier's life in the battlefield, and has revolutionized the way humans had fought since the 18th Millennium. If it were not for this system, the Iron Men would have overwhelmed the Federation rather quickly, for it gave humans a fighting chance to keep up with the murderous AI constructs.

The level of efficiency a military unit could achieve with ABACOS nearly defied belief, it practically allowed a commander to wield his forces as if they were an extension of his own body, and the constant battlefield updates in real time allowed said commanders to make highly informed decisions in rapid succession, keeping any operation on an aggressive tempo from start to finish.

Ryan opened his eyes again, it was time to join his squad.


Titan Pilot Jacob Eamon stood in the con-pod of the colossal Castigator-class titan Liberty Prime, preparing himself to link with it's system. Despite the size of the Castigator's head module, the space relegated for the pilot was rather small, most of the head was taken up the meters thick armor plating and the sophisticated equipment which bridged his cognitive functions to that of the particularly eccentric AI that served as the co-pilot.

Jacob set his pilot helmet over his head, and then proceeded to grab three sets of plugs and insert them into the slots on the back of the helmet.

"LIBERTY PRIME, READY TO DISPENSE DEFEAT ON THE FEDERATION'S ENEMIES!" The AI inhabiting the titan boomed in his headgear. Jacob fought the urge to groan. The AI's personality was that of an overbearingly obnoxious patriot and hyper-nationalist. He would constantly hijack the external audio-casters and blare pro-Federation rhetoric at maximum volume. There were many in the Titan corps who believed the AI was insane.

"Shut up and initiate the neural handshake," Jacob growled out.

An instant later, restraining clamps locked in around his body, locking him down. After that, a needle like prong inserted itself into a slot on the back of his head. White pain filled his body, as his mind joined with Liberty Prime, and suddenly he felt a hundred-and-seventy-five meters taller.

Jacob was not a vain man, but in this moment he felt like a god. He was now in control of mankind's most sophisticated land-based weapons platform. A singular honor that he enjoyed every second of.

'NEURAL BRIDGE ENGAGED! TOGETHER WE SHALL TAKE TO THE FIELDS OF GLORY AND STRIKE RIGHTEOUS FEAR IN THE HEARTS OF THE GREENSKINS!'

Two minds became one, and in that instant. Liberty Prime was ready for war.


Two hours after first strike


The dust filled planes of Hydra Volantis quaked with the steps of colossal war-machines. Three Castigator class titans strode tall and proud alongside their ten lesser Nephilim cousins. Above their heads flew an armada of standard and super-heavy gunships, dropships, hulking cargo shuttles, and shoals of gun drones.

Ryan Taylor was inside one of the Stormhawk super-heavy gunships with his squad of eight marines along with five other squads packed inside the gunship's cargo hold affectionately known as the 'blood tray' along with half a dozen Sentinel battle-walkers huddled up against the walls.

They along with millions of other soldiers were bound to the various fronts of the enemy, who was at the moment busy harassing the 'native' humans of this world. Ryan, and many others including his friend Warren Cain were shocked that this world of all worlds had been colonized during the Long Sleep. But it was of no matter, they were humans and needed to be protected and returned to the true path. But it also changed the mission, the original plan had been to nuke the crap out of the entire planet before the discovery of the human inhabited settlements dotting the surface by orbital satellite.

They were inbound to the nearest and second largest settlement on the planet, it was currently plagued by an army of Orks, and the defenders lines were slowly sagging under the weight of repetitive assaults. Nothing a little plasma fire here and there wouldn't fix.

Thinking more on the enemy, it had been a while since Orks were a problem. The Eldar Empire kept them perpetually in check with their military, and the Federation torched every Ork inhabited world it encountered, keeping the race effectively harmless, but never entirely eradicated much to the chagrin of both powers. If the Orks had expanded in their absence, this could be the tip of a very serious problem.

"We are coming up on the engagement zone, all marines prepare for drop," the voice of their CO came over the comms.


Captain August Chelkar felt something akin to surreal disbelief as he gazed through his magnoculars at maximum setting. He knew what they were, but his mind refused to believe they were real.

He, like most other Imperial citizens had heard of the god-machines of the Adeptus Mechanicus, and the awesome might they had brought to countless battlefields. But this was something beyond even the most ludicrous of the old legends and pictographs.

And that was only the beginning, above the titans was an immense fleet of aircraft that defied all attempts of identification, but they were clearly not Orks.

The greenskins themselves were apparently of similar mind, and the horde had broken off to confront the new arrivals.

He and the entire PDF regiment could but stand by and watch the unfolding drama in stunned silence.


Major General Miles Stryker of the Federation Army 1201st Assault Division stood on the bridge of one of the Stormhawk super-heavy gunships spear-heading the vast airmobile force sent to liberate the local settlement. From his position behind the pilot's cockpit he could see the a rugged urban sprawl, and with enhanced magnification see the defensive lines of the human defenders and he could not help but shake his head.

Modern military technology had long rendered the use of earthworks obsolete, precision missile barrages and orbital strikes could neatly fill such trenches with super-heated plasma fire, transforming them into little more than mass graves.

Miles took a sip of his steaming mug of coffee as he walked back to a table with a holographic representation of the battlefield floating on top of it. Icons representing individual units were displayed in blue, enemy forces were shown as a red tide of dots, and the locals positions were marked with yellow.

"Black Knight this is Eagle-Golf-1 we've got Whiskey Bravo spotted," Miles cracked a smile as he set his coffee down, it was time to show these orks what real firepower looked like.

"Eagle-Golf-1 this is Black Knight actual, hold for attack confirmation, all wings assume attack formation." Miles ordered as he manipulated the icons across the board, tracing lines of approach and attack. Finalizing the layout, Miles waited as ABACOS worked it's magic.

"All wings reporting vectors locked in, sir," said a smooth male voice, the avatar of his AI adjutant Lycurgus appeared on a small projector next to the holo-table. Lycurgus's avatar had no distinct features, appearing as a generic mannequin seemingly made out of lines of digital code, with two bright motes of light where the eyes should be.

On the holotable, thousands of lines and squares arranged themselves, each one representing the destined path of each missile upon every vehicle, aircraft, and blob of infantry marked by the squares.

"All wings play audio file 'RotV' on external, make it loud."

"This is Delta-Foxtrot, shall we dance?"

Miles grabbed his coffee and walked back to the twin cockpits at the front of the bridge. The empowering tones of Richard Wagner's Ride of the Valkyries blared on the external speakers of every gunship, dropship, and cargo shuttle at decibels high enough to pop the unprotected eardrum. The acoustic dampening material lining the hull dulled it down to be only slightly audible.

"This is Black Knight actual, forward units switch to incendiary, cauterize designated areas. Volley fire in three second intervals on my command." Miles ordered, the technopathic link to his unit commanders saw them all sound off acknowledgments almost in unison.

"Forward units... unleash Hell."

In that moment, a curtain of hundreds of bluish exhaust trails streaked forth from wing and pylon mounted launchers on the front line Scorpion and Thunderclap and super-heavy Stormhawk gunships. Seconds later another wave of missiles, followed by another, then another.

The seething green tide of Orks rushing to meet and fight this new and potentially exciting enemy was halted in it's tracks as a torrential downpour of plasma incendiary warheads rained down upon their heads, blooming into a sea of bright white actinic flashes that spread waves of super-heated gasses. Guided by drone intelligences overseen by ABACOS, missiles precisely struck concentrated groups of Orks, maximizing sustained casualties tremendously in the following volleys.

Orks ran around screaming as blastwaves of super-heated air caused their hides to ignite, ramshackle vehicles were tossed flaming into the air by powerful explosions.

As he watched, Miles took another long sip from his mug and had but one thought on his mind. 'Damn this is good coffee.'


Codex: Ancients

"They have come from the distant past to steal our future, to destroy our way of life and scrub away our souls. But the what they fail to see, is that the will of the God-Emperor is not so easily broken!" -Colonel Erthan Kurst. 77th Harakoni Warhawks. Twice decorated Hero of the Imperium.

The Reclamation Initiative: The idea central to the formation of the Federation Enclave, the Reclamation Initiative calls for the total 'reclamation' of all 'rogue' human colonies in the wake of the Age of Strife, similar to the Great Crusade. In fact, many have labeled it as the 'Second Great Crusade'.

To facilitate this plan, the Enclave's architects scrounged up every scrap of military hardware and every unit in the CFDF they could get their hands on, and left human space en mass to the edges of the galaxy in unexplored space.

There they constructed an immense underground facility called Rapture City, the entire structure was essentially a time-capsule, meant to preserve sixty-million people in stasis, as well as enough military equipment to outfit more than twenty times that number (enough to arm the entire population of China and still have a lot of surplus.)

Some time after Rapture City went into stasis, the Eldar Empire fell and the entire galaxy became embroiled in warp storms that caused the sub-routines charged with keeping track of time to malfunction, causing the Enclave's Reclamation to miss it's target date in the 30th millennium, and land in the 41st Millenium, where the conditions for pursuing it's objectives were far from ideal.

The objectives of the Reclamation are as follows:

Restore Rapture City and all military and industrial assets in the Hydra Volantis system.

Organize all military units into several Expeditionary Fleets.

Dispatch scouts to locate and identify rogue human colonies for the Fleets to liberate.

Terminate the governments of all renegade states outside the threshold of Federal Compliance

Pacify all hostile alien presence in and around human space. Liberate alien occupied human worlds as encountered. No exceptions.

Correct aberrant social norms in reclaimed territories in keeping with Federal Compliance. Exterminate all Level Four (uncorrectable) mutants and above, detain all psychically active individuals.

This aggressive foreign policy is reflective of the condition the Iron War left humanity in.

Prior to the Iron War the Colonial Federation of Man was a hyper-liberal, absolute democracy with firm leftist leanings steeped in perpetual social laxity due to relying on synthetics to do virtually everything, education and fitness standards were abhorrently low.

The Federation Enclave and it's successors however are marked by strong military tradition, healthy work ethic, an all encompassing meritocracy that permeates all levels of society, and a strong sense of resolve, rightness, and purity all wrapped up in a democracy that has curtailed the civil liberties of it's citizens at times due to necessity. And a powerful competitive consumer-based capitalist economy that is good for everyone.

The Enclave justifies this borderline jingoist and morally corrosive agenda as a means of assuring the survival and prosperity of humanity throughout the galaxy, and for the most part they follow through on this promise.

Despite their hostile approach to reorganizing humanity, the Reclamation does not actively target xenos, and allows room in it's mandate for diplomacy and pacts of mutual benefit with aliens that do not directly threaten mankind.

It remains to be seen whether the 41st Millennium will force them to alter their tactics, or resolutely push onwards.


"When dealing with them pesky aliens, the best negotiatin' position is sitting on a huge flyin' pile o' guns." -Lieutenant Sarah Dagalle, 107th orbital assault squadron, Federation Navy.

Stormhawk Super-Heavy Gunship: The Concordance Defense CD-12 Stormhawk. It is essentially a war in a can. The Stormhawk is a void-capable VTOL heavy transport and assault aircraft used by the Navy for full-scale military operations on the ground and in space. It is one of the most powerful vehicles used by the Federation military, coupled with heavy armor, void shields, devastating firepower and a large cargo bay for additional room for cargo or forces, making the CD-12 Stormhawk Gunship a fully-functional, multi-purpose air/space craft.

Compared to the TC-7 Thunderclap (true Thunderhawk), and CD-25 Scorpion (true Stormraven), the CD-12 is significantly larger, slower, and less maneuverable. However with it's panoply of heavy energy weapons, dozens of rocket and missile pods, and compliment of door gunners, it excels as a lead gunship when mainline AT-66s are not around or available. To prevent catastrophic freindly-fire incidents resulting from careless use of such firepower, all but the door guns are constrained through ABACOS monitored friendly fire IFF avoidance codes for safety. Otherwise, it acts mainly as a military transport and air/space assault vehicle, utilizing it's ability to land numerous Sentinel-class battle-walkers, infantry, and other vehicles up to the size of Baneblades across the battlefield and through space. Its roles include acting as capital ship/mobile C3, assault/attack, defense and transportation/carrier. In essence the Stormhawk is the military workhorse of the Federation Military.

It's main engines are mounted in pairs in four nacelles, one on each wing and two at the rear. The nacelles can articulate independently, thus altering (i.e. vectoring) the direction of thrust and improving the gunship's low altitude maneuverability. Six ventral thrusters, two on each wing nacelle and one on each aft nacelle, allow the Stormhawk to land and take off vertically. These engines are capable of both space and atmospheric operation. The CD-12, in addition to being fully capable of orbital insertion is just large enough to be equipped with a Class-10 Micro-Warp Engine, and thus is capable of limited FTL travel using inter-dimensional 'hops' towards the warp in a manner similar to the Tau.

The Stormhawk is 45.6 meters long, 38.5 meters wide, and 11.22 meters high. It is armed with twelve sentry gatling plasma blasters. Four twin-linked rotary plasma blasters. A quad linked gatling blaster controlled by the pilot. Two heavy PPCs. Four regular PPCs. A twin-linked heavy gatling blaster mounted in a turret on the upper forward section of the hull. And an array of rocket and missile launchers mounted on the wings. It's loadout makes it ideal for hunting titans and obliterating enemy infantry and armor formations.

A/N: I envisioned the Stormhawk by combining the characteristics of the Dragon gunship from James Cameron's Avatar, the Pelican from Halo, and the Tau Manta.

"It is said that a Guardsman's life is to die. Very convenient considering that my men live to kill." -General Roland F. Stoddart, Federation Army.

Federation Army: Without a doubt the most spectacular fighting force in human history. The Federation Army is the largest branch of the Federation Defense Forces, it is an army of elite soldiers bolstered with some of the most sophisticated military technology in the galaxy. It is a vast homogenous force that form's the Federation's broadsword to the Imperial Guard's hammer.

Centuries of fighting the Iron Men has honed the Army into an organization of machine-like efficiency capable of adapting to almost any situation in a very rapid and prompt manner. Their long-standing traditions of stoicism and tactical excellence extend into the 41st Millennium, as few beyond the Craftworld Eldar, Necrons, Tyranids, and the Tau of the Fire Caste are capable of keeping up with their rapid tempo of coordination and movement.

The source of their success is the powerful battlefield control system known as ABACOS. It allows the Army to operate in a state of constant synergy and cohesion, and endowing it's commanders with a very clear picture of the battlefield in real-time. Ensuring that few if any mistakes are made.

Despite their sophistication, the Army is made up of average humans toughened up a bit by gene therapy. Men and women recruited across many worlds into a massive unified force. ABACOS allows the Federation to maintain an elite army without suffering the weakness of low numbers due to long training regimes and candidate pools, as long use of the system 'irons out' the anti-social tendencies of soldiers and effectively trains the soldiers in advanced tactics and superb teamwork skills over time.

Because it's an all volunteer organization, the Federation Army typically doesn't field as many soldiers as other fighting forces such as the Imperial Guard in a given combat situation. They make up for this with their ultra-modern combined arms warfare and ABACOS doctrine, and their superior weapons and armor.

However, their distinct lack of dedicated close combat units makes them highly vulnerable to the assault troops of the various races of the 41st Millennium. To offset this weakness, alien mercenaries such as kroot are sometimes used to provide a bulwark against such attacks.

Stereolithography: Rather than use immense and oversized manufactorums as the Imperium does, the Federation's hyper-advanced industry model revolves around the SLA plant. Stereolithography is a form of optical 3d printing that has been used since the beginning of the third millennium. The SLA distributed model facility is capable of constructing virtually anything so long as the required raw materials were available, in fact the STC model was designed with this form of production in mind. However, many STC blueprints are coded in a proprietary format, especially those made by corporations and all advanced military hardware, and thus can only be used by specific plants owned by that company or the military.

Stereolithography is used by other races besides mankind, the Tau earth caste use this form of production almost as extensively as the humans do, the Eldar have a version that is far more advanced using wraithbone as a building material, and bonesingers as the fabricators, and are capable of forging the hulls of entire starships in one piece from a wraithbone core, while the Federation is forced to create their ships in modular sections within the macro-scale facilities in space.

The Adeptus Mechanicus actually has a few ancient SLA facilities in their possession, but rather than study this technology for the betterment of the Imperium, these facilities are stasis locked so the techpriests can ogle them.

A/N: Better late than never, am I right? ; )