Woo! Phalanx and cover!

[FlashGordon]

http://www.blacklibrary.com/all-products/phalanx.html
It looks sweet!

[Promethius]

What a rubbish picture. Looks like a Ramilies star fort rather than a moon sized space ship, which is what phalanx is. An illustration of phalanx could have been awesome.

[shadowhawk2008]

And who says the Ramillies isnt based off the Phalanx?

[Promethius]

And who says the Ramillies isnt based off the Phalanx?

There's no mention of it in the Ramilies fluff, and the ramilies is a stationary space station that can be moved with tugs. It's also got no room for engines in its quadrant design. Wheras the phalanx is a space ship which moves under its own power.

[The bearded one]

We don't know the scale of the picture though. Those little blibs around it could be the size of battlebarges for all we know..

[bound for glory]

well, i'm looking forword to it. love me some soul drinkers...even if its the last we'll read of them.

[MajorWesJanson]

There's no mention of it in the Ramilies fluff, and the ramilies is a stationary space station that can be moved with tugs. It's also got no room for engines in its quadrant design.

Below? It moves up relative to the observer? Look at Atlantis on Stargate.

[shadowhawk2008]

There's no mention of it in the Ramilies fluff, and the ramilies is a stationary space station that can be moved with tugs. It's also got no room for engines in its quadrant design. Wheras the phalanx is a space ship which moves under its own power.

Background is changed all the time. Considering the outward design similarities between the two, I would say that the Ramillies is just a scaled-down version of the Phalanx, and a little more restricted for obvious reasons. Imagine a rogue Imperial Governor or a Chaos Warband or whatever which takes over one (or more) if these and just goes on a rampage throughout several subsectors.

[FlashGordon]

well, i'm looking forword to it. love me some soul drinkers...even if its the last we'll read of them.

I hope it is not the end! That would be a shame.

[Joewrightgm]

I guess I've never understood this series. I have the omnibus, and I forced myself to read the first book, made it two chapters into the next in the book, but I couldn't care less about the characters or what they've done.

According to the blurb there, they're on trial. The Hell? When did the Adeptus Astartes gain a sense of mercy? Their librarian turned into a giant mutant spider and killed the chapter master before leading a war on a demon world in the name of a demon prince.

Huron wants to expand his chapter and he gets shot with a melta point blank and chased into the maelstrom; But a librarian tainted and mutated by the warp, murdering their chapter master and leading an unholy war on a demon world, then killing Imperial servants? Let's give this one some merit, it really isn't as bad as it sounds . . .

[shadowhawk2008]

You haven't read the first book with any clarity it seems.

The Soul Drinkers who sided with Sarpedon did so because of what they (probably not all of them were with him to reclaim the Soulspear) had been through on that space station and because of how they had been betrayed by the Mechanicus and the ineptness of the Guard (?) officer in charge of the operation.

They were censured by the Inquisition while the Mechanicus got off scot-free. Sure, it turns out later that the Mechanicus forces in question had been duped by a Tzeentchian daemon but the Soul Drinkers were totally unaware of this.

They also didn't go to fight Vi'Meth in the name of said daemon. They did it in their own interests.

As for the trial process. Vladimir Pugh isn't like most other chapter masters or astartes it seems. Even the trial isn't so fair as it sounds because all the people the Soul Drinkers have pissed off since going renegade are there howling for blood. The deck is totally stacked against them.

As for the Astartes getting a sense of mercy. The same thing happened with the Mantis Warriors in Goto's short story Trial of the Mantis Warriors and it is what happens in IA10 at the end of the Badab War when the Executioners, Lamenters and the Mantis Warriors are judged by a court of their peers.

Huron also did far, far worse things than the Soul Drinkers have yet done.

[Joewrightgm]

Huron also did far, far worse things than the Soul Drinkers have yet done.

Your probably right about the first book; its been so long, its dimly remembered, but I didn't enjoy the book enough to really remember more than a basic outline of event.

as for the Astral Claws: You mean like killing Imperial servants, allies and openly accepting the open mutation of their brothers? At least the Astral Claws drew the line at open mutation.

True about the Mantis warriors, and even the rest of the Badab renegades, were shown 'mercy' of a 100 year penitent crusade after the investigation found out it was out of hubris and mis-directed loyalty they did it. Not because their giant-mutant-spider-chapter-master-murdering chief librarian told them too!

Seriously not trying to troll here (even though it sounds like it!). I'm at a lack for reading material lately, and I may actually read the omnibus again to see what I missed.

I think I just found it really weird that these space marines were openly mutating and it never seemed to cross their mind (from what I hazily remember) that "Oh Jesus we're mutating! Huh, no going back now is there gents? Death to the False Emperor!"

[bound for glory]

very sadly, the entry for phalanx says its the last in the series...

[shadowhawk2008]

Your probably right about the first book; its been so long, its dimly remembered, but I didn't enjoy the book enough to really remember more than a basic outline of event.

as for the Astral Claws: You mean like killing Imperial servants, allies and openly accepting the open mutation of their brothers? At least the Astral Claws drew the line at open mutation.

True about the Mantis warriors, and even the rest of the Badab renegades, were shown 'mercy' of a 100 year penitent crusade after the investigation found out it was out of hubris and mis-directed loyalty they did it. Not because their giant-mutant-spider-chapter-master-murdering chief librarian told them too!

Seriously not trying to troll here (even though it sounds like it!). I'm at a lack for reading material lately, and I may actually read the omnibus again to see what I missed.

I think I just found it really weird that these space marines were openly mutating and it never seemed to cross their mind (from what I hazily remember) that "Oh Jesus we're mutating! Huh, no going back now is there gents? Death to the False Emperor!"

The SD didn't seek to expand their numbers beyond the established 1000. They didn't plunge an entire sector (re: Maelstrom Zone) into war with another sector. They didn't start pirate raids on Imperial shipping (as the AC are supposed to have done). They didn't drag 3 other chapters with them into "heresy" and revolt. They didn't secretly absorb the remnants of a successor chapter into their numbers (granted they don't have successors apparently). They didn't cause a big who-ha with the High Lords. They didn't declare fiefdom over an entire sector. They didn't take the PDF/Guard forces of an entire sector and put them under their direct control. They didn't take the gene-seed of another chapter and use it for their own gains. They didn't defame the Imperial symbols on their wargear as far as I remember.

The SD were also driven by Sarpedon's own philosophy of following in the ideals of the Emperor, not the bureaucrats on Terra. Hence why they sort of accepted their mutation until they found they were being manipulated by a daemon, after which they sought to cure their mutations, the point of the second book.

*Just giving a counter-argument and not really derailing the thread* but all of this does have an effect on the "trial proceedings" in Phalanx insofar as the prosecutors are fairly unwilling to listen to them.

[Mr_Foulscumm]

I hope it is not the end! That would be a shame.

Shame is the opposite of the word I would have used.

Anyway, isn't this just the story that they published in Hammer and Bolter?

[shadowhawk2008]

It is being serialized in H&B. The full thing will be available later.

[Mr_Foulscumm]

Yeah, so it's the same story. Oh well, good for the people that like series but don't like ebooks.

[FlashGordon]

Shame is the opposite of the word I would have used

And why are you telling me this? and why should i care?

Yeah, so it's the same story. Oh well, good for the people that like series but don't like ebooks.

Well its not a ebook.

[Col. Tartleton]

The entire series is dumb. Luckily the Soul Drinkers aren't actually Sons of Dorn. It's just one big conspiracy after another.

[shadowhawk2008]

The entire series is dumb. Luckily the Soul Drinkers aren't actually Sons of Dorn. It's just one big conspiracy after another.

Gene-seed identification by the Angels Sanguine confirms they are not.