Getting a Thunderhawk

By Quantem Fear, in Rogue Trader

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NGL said:

So that forge world we're headed to they gonna load us up a thunderhawk if my void-mistress asks nicely?

Nope, but the Adeptus Mechanicus might consider giving you one as reward for a really big service.

Hygric said:

Umm, the Inquisition can use Land Raiders, and they are "normal" humans. Aquiring a Thunderhawk or a Landraider I would make an adventure myself, no lucky dice rolls out of that one!

The Inquisition are "normal" humans? Burn the heretic!!!! Seriously, the Inquisition doesn't care for rules like that. gran_risa.gif We're talking about people who can create daemonhosts and use daemonweapons, and the only ones who can legally do anything about that are other Inquisitors.

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N0-1_H3r3 said:

I imagine you'd have a different problem. Every single Stormbird was manufactured on Terra during and immediately after the Reunification Wars by the manufactories of the Yndonesic Bloc... due to their involvement in such important historical events, I can imagine that the Ecclesiarchy and the Adeptus Mechanicus alike would be on hand to claim it as a relic (it's not like the church hasn't attempted similar with things like Crusade-era Warrants of Trade, as the fact that the Emperor signed them makes them incalculably precious from a religious perspective), and I imagine the Astartes wouldn't be too far behind for similar reasons.

If you can find an intact, functioning Stormbird, it'd be a miracle, as each one is more than ten thousand years old (remember, the end of the Heresy was about 300.M31, so you're looking at machines that were created within the first century of the 31st Millennium), and nobody now remembers how they were put together or maintained (well, there are a couple, but the artificers of old are either long dead or serving Chaos, or both - the likes of Bjorn the Fell-Handed will remember using them, however, as he was in his prime when they were being phased out of service). Being non-STC (STC technology is Martian, the Reunification Wars are pre-Treaty of Mars, so the Imperium didn't have STC technology... that's actually why they phased the Stormbird out in favour of the Thunderhawk). If you can keep hold of it amidst all the clamour to claim a relic of the earliest days of the Imperium, it's an even bigger miracle...

Your pardon, but I have to nitpick one of your comments... What makes you think the Stormbirds are non-STC? Here is my reasoning: The Standard Template Constructs were developed during the The Dark Age(s) of Technology. The DAoT was from roughly M15 to M25. After that, the Age of Strife happened, and then the Emperor appeared and picked up the pieces with the Great Crusade in M31. So, STC templates had clearly been developed well before the Reunification Wars... Remember, prior to the treaty of Mars, the Mechanicus was raiding Terra for supplies and technology . I see no reason the Stormbird couldn't be a STC pattern rediscovered by the Yndonesic Bloc in some dusty data archive on Terra. (And I am not aware of any canon or BL-fluff to the contrary.)

I thought the Adeptus Astartes switched to the Thunderhawk simply because it was a better fit for their needs. The Thunderhawk is pretty big - it has to carry thirty marines, heavy armour, and many weapons including a titan sized turbo laser. (The old Battlefleet Gothic game implied that it was significantly bigger than standard small craft; launch bays carrying Thunderhawks had their launch capacity halved.) But, the Stormbird is described as bigger and less agile than a Thunderhawk, and is capable of carrying a full company of 100 marines. So, it's gotta be a huge flyer... probably requires specialised launch bays and equipment to operate. Besides, a chapter of marines just doesn't need a transport that large. If one Stormbird gets shot down, they lose an entire company.

I've seen Stormbirds appear in Black Library fluff several times, mostly in the hands of the Traitor Legions, and was curious as to how they'd fare in a more "modern" setting. You raise some very good points about scarcity and 'relic' status. A minor miracle to own one, indeed. It'd be a big status symbol if you could pull it off, though. cool.gif

Cheers,

- V.

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Vandegraffe said:

Your pardon, but I have to nitpick one of your comments... What makes you think the Stormbirds are non-STC? Here is my reasoning: The Standard Template Constructs were developed during the The Dark Age(s) of Technology. The DAoT was from roughly M15 to M25. After that, the Age of Strife happened, and then the Emperor appeared and picked up the pieces with the Great Crusade in M31. So, STC templates had clearly been developed well before the Reunification Wars... Remember, prior to the treaty of Mars, the Mechanicus was raiding Terra for supplies and technology . I see no reason the Stormbird couldn't be a STC pattern rediscovered by the Yndonesic Bloc in some dusty data archive on Terra. (And I am not aware of any canon or BL-fluff to the contrary.)

I recall seeing mention of STC in regards to the Thunderhawk, but not the Stormbird. We know for certain that the Thunderhawk is STC-derived... we don't have any kind of certainty about the Stormbird.

However, beyond that... yes, STC predates the Imperium by millennia... but Terra wouldn't have needed it during the Dark Age of Technology. STC technology was developed (on Mars) as an aid for colonisation (you give an STC database to a colony ship, it helps the colonists build all the necessary tools they need), but it was far from the highest technology available (it's simple, durable and easy to maintain... that's the selling point). As a colossal Hive World and the birthplace of human civilisation, Terra would already have had advanced technology far beyond what STCs could provide.

As I understand it, Terra had never needed STC databases (it could produce better technology, and Mars wasn't that far away if there was something else bigger and better)... but when the Age of Strife began, Terra couldn't maintain its baseline of technology amidst the struggle for survival and reverted to barbarism amidst the ruins of a more sophisticated age. Martian raids for relic technology (Age of Technology stuff) would have had nothing to do with STC (because STC was, IIRC, developed on Mars; it's one of the reasons Mars retained a strong baseline level of technology when Terra didn't), and Terran technology during the Reunification Wars wouldn't have had anything to do with STC technology... because the nascent Imperium started using it after the Treaty of Mars.

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I would have to disagree only in part, in that the STC was developed at or before M20 (original RT Warhammer 40k) when all or most of humanity was united in a confederacy and the STC was responsible for a explosion in colonization (~M20). I don't know if its entirely accurate to say (only) Mechanicus (or Mars at that time) made it but it is likely that all or some of it was developed there. Or that its spread was due to Mars' exploration/colonization fleets alone. In all likelyhood, before Earth's de-evolution into barbarism their scientists are highly likely to have had a hand in its development.