Inquisitorial/Mechanicus Report: The Cainite Psi-Knights
By Magos Inspicere Gad-jet, Mechanicus Juris.
Written from material supplied by the Ordo Hereticus.
Translated from the original Binharic by Lex-Mechanic Pennica.
Security Level: Vermillion
Introduction:
Archmagos Inspicere Quin-C had to have my Clave's security clearance level increased substantially before I was able to be given the data I have used to pen this report (For my full analysis contact Lex-Mechanic Pennica, who I can now confirm has the highest security clearance of any Lex-Mechanic in the entire Segmentum). In doing so, I have been made aware of aspects of the Adeptus Mechanicus that I was not previously aware of, and that will haunt my data banks for cycles to come.
I speak of the Ordo Sinister, the most secret and elite of the Legions of the Collegia Titanica, who operate the Dread Psi-Titans. It is necessary that I know about them, as the Heretek's of the Cainite Protectorate are believed to have found the long lost corpse of at least one of these dark God-Engines, and to have reverse engineered it to produce a Heretical weapon of terrifying potency.
These monstrosities, a perversion of the noble Imperial Knights, are believed to have only been produced recently. The Protectorate is known to have conquered at least one Knight World in the course of their depredations across the Damocles Gulf, erroneously claiming that the state of dutiful service that the subjects of the Knight Houses existed in was 'little more than slavery'. We do not know where or when they found the cadaver of the Psi-Titan, but given the extraordinary complexity of these terrible expressions of the Omnissiah's power, we can assume that it have must taken them some time to discover its secrets.
In combining the sacred technologies of these two machines, they have produced a terrible thing that they refer to as a "Psi-Knight". Although they have only been fielded rarely to our knowledge, wherever they go, the Protectorate is almost guaranteed victory, in spite of all that can be thrown at them.
Aspect and Equipment:
These walking tech-heresies have been caught in pict-captures at least once, so I am able to describe them fairly well for the readers of this report. They stand over 10m tall, and appear to be based off the Dominus Pattern Knight chassis, assumedly being the only one large enough to accommodate the Ciricrux Anima, the archeotech core of all Psi-Titans which channel and amplify the power of the psykers normally enslaved within them.
They do not bear any heraldry or devices beyond the quartered sigil of the Protectorate in the place of their Knightly shield, and are not painted the normal red of USA armour, instead showing their grey adamantium hull, upon which blasphemously glowing runes are carved, and do not have the stern face of an honourable Imperial Knight, but instead the blank visored visage of a Psi-Titan.
However, they seem to lack the super-heavy armour that the Dominus Pattern normally relies on, being barely more reinforced than an Armiger Scout Pattern. Instead they appear to rely on some variety of vastly potent Void Shield, closer to something carried by a Warhound-Pattern Scout Titan than the limited field Ion-Shields utilised by a standard Imperial Knight. How they are able to generate sufficient power for this in such a small chassis is not known. However, the reduced weight means that they are much faster than the standard Dominus Pattern.
In regards to armaments, most notably they carry a miniaturised version of the signature weapon of all Psi-Titans, the Sinistramanus Tenebrae; literally in low gothic "The Left Hand of Darkness", a terrible weapon which can be best described as a mutilated Warp Engine converted into a cannon. These fire orbs of pure darkness which are capable of opening very brief warp rifts in the areas they strike, which hurl all matter within their radius directly into the Empyrean, and which can suck the very souls from beings merely in their nearby vicinity, leaving the bodies untouched. Although obviously not as potent as the full sized version mounted on a Warlord-Sinister Titan chassis, they still allow their bearer to punch far above their normal weight class, turning adamantium into mist and slaying the doughtiest warriors with a single shot.
On the right hand, they bear a more classical yet still devastatingly potent Knight weapon, a Thunderstrike Gauntlet, which have been further augmented with Lightning Claws, an addition normally reserved only for the most senior members of a Knightly House. This vicious weapon can shatter the legs of lesser titans when wielded by a normal Imperial Knight, so I dread to consider what they can do when used by these unsanctified horrors. The Claws have further been altered to be made retractable, for reasons we are unable to discern.
On their carapace, instead of the more traditional weapons normally carried by Imperial Knights, they bear a pair of multi barrelled lascannons, similar to that known to be carried by the Black Commissar's personal aide, the unsanctioned psyker known as Ferrik Jurgen, whom we will return to later. Potent weapons capable of rotating independently of each other, and either punching through heavy armour or clearing a charge of massed troops, they are certainly the weapons used most often by the Psi-Knights, who strangely seem to view using their far more potent tools only as a last resort.
Pilots and Powers:
A Psi-Titan is normally piloted by a Preceptor-Intendant, a powerful Blank capable of keeping the psykers who are bound to the Titan's weapon systems in check. In creating their Psi-Knights, the hereteks in the BORG have, to use a phrase common amongst the indentured workers of my native Forge World, cut out the middle man. The Psi-Knights are piloted only by the most powerful psykers to pass through the Protectorate's dark answer to the Scholastica Psykana, the "Crèche for the Gifted". Paired to a Throne Mechanicum, and willingly lending their own psychic power to their combat walker's Ciricrux Anima, we estimate that only those very rare psykers who within the ranks of the Imperium would normally become the most powerful of Primaris Psykers, at least of Gamma level or above, would be capable of powering such a machine alone. Their rarity is the one good thing about this whole situation, as this leaves the Protectorate very limited in how widely they can deploy these monstrosities.
However, one has been witnessed to regularly enter battle at the shoulder of the Arch-Heretic himself, Ciaphas Cain. We believe this to be piloted by the aforementioned Jurgen, whose power has been approximated as being at Alpha level, but somehow (assumedly through dark deals with the Ruinous Powers) has not succumbed to the insanity that eventually takes all those so steeped in the Warp. Towering over even his dark master in the Heretek device known as the "Liberator Armour", this Psi-Knight is distinguished from its terrible brethren by being inscribed with a name, "The Varangian". Only being utilised on open battlefields due to its great stature, this is scant comfort for the regiments it has destroyed single handedly, the fortifications it has crushed with a wave of its Gauntlet, or the Titans it has punched holes clean through.
Just as the powers of a Psi-Titan are more than just the visible weaponry, the Protectorate's Psi-Knights are capable of feats of Sorcery which put normal psykers to shame. However, as they do not use the suffering of enslaved psykers to fuel them, some of their abilities are, while similar in concept, in function markedly different from those of the Ordo Sinister.
An infiltrator who has since gone dark was able to discover what the senior officers of the Protectorate Psyker Corp refer to the most commonly used ones as, which having read myself I must assume to be either be deliberately misleading or a foolish misconception: Cloak of Honour - Such is the psychically amplified aura of soul-deep determination and hunger for justice that hangs about a Psi-Knight that even the strongest-willed foes will stop and stare in awe and shame if close to the war machine. The very air of the fields upon which they tread becomes infused with the willpower of their pilots, driving their allies on to greater feats of heroism. Panacea-techica - Ghostly light courses across the Psi-Knight's hull, re-knitting shattered armour and broken machinery. Meanwhile, the Psyker within is treated with vast doses of Panacea to counteract the effects of them nobly assuming their steed's wounds upon themselves. Judgement Pulse - A vibrant pulse of psychic energy that represents the honour and fierce resolution of the pilot seated within is unleashed from the Knight that adjudicates the very soul of anything it touches, causing great damage if found wanting, and reinforcing it if found to be truly just. Quickening - Ætheric conduits in the Knight's limbs glow with power, driving the noble engine forwards at a supernatural pace. Perpicacious Tempest - The Knight's head is crowned with a halo of sparking lightning and hurricane-force winds that, when unleashed, scatter man and machine alike with ease.
Clearly the infiltrator was either turned or fed incorrect data, as concepts like honour and justice are beyond heretics like the Cainites, and so the true nature of their abilities must remain mere speculation for now.
In conclusion, these distortions of the Omnissiah's greatest god-machines are a blot upon the galaxy. I would not recommend facing them with anything short of Anti-Titan Weaponry, such as Shadowsword variant Baneblades, or even our own Titans of Reaver class or higher, and I would recommend that "The Varangian" be destroyed from orbit with Starship weapons, or that the Ordo Sinister itself be deployed to face and defeat this mark of dishonour upon all they have accomplished in the Emperor's name.
Magos Inspicere Gad-jet, Agent of the Mechanicus Juris.