Horus Heresy: Kryptos by Graham McNeill

[bound for glory]

steve54, i did'nt get that, either. and as far as KILLING GROUND goes, well, while in afganistan, i was in deparete need of toilet paper a few times, and that would have been the perfact time to have a copy...

[shadowhawk2008]

Think I'm missing something then. Because I wasn't aware that I had to actively *hate* a few BL books and rate them fairly low to be taken seriously.

[bound for glory]

Think I'm missing something then. Because I wasn't aware that I had to actively *hate* a few BL books and rate them fairly low to be taken seriously.

i think you're taken seriously, here. you have a hardcore FANS knowleage of the 40k background and universe. seem to have very strong opinions on all of it, and thats fine. good for you!
but between you and me, i have it on good authurity that granny will continue to send those birthday cakes and the 'atta boy! cards even if you disagree with something they do...

[bound for glory]

Think I'm missing something then. Because I wasn't aware that I had to actively *hate* a few BL books and rate them fairly low to be taken seriously.

i think you're taken seriously, here. you have a hardcore FANS knowleage of the 40k background and universe. seem to have very strong opinions on all of it, and thats fine. good for you!
but between you and me, i have it on good authurity that granny will continue to send those birthday cakes and the 'atta boy! cards even if you disagree with something they do...

[Steve54]

Think I'm missing something then. Because I wasn't aware that I had to actively *hate* a few BL books and rate them fairly low to be taken seriously.

Nobody said that, but to me any reviewer loses credibility if they rate everything highly (when some things clearly aren't) when combined with jumping on anybody who voices any criticism of BL, It gives the appearance of being a fawning fan

[malika]

Ok...can we get back to discussing Kryptos now?

[Sqallum]

Um..yeah. I hope to see more on the Dark Mechanicum...and hopefully what happens to Helbor-Fal in the end... (SP?)

[brother alinski]

I liked Kryptos, It was only a short story but it shows how cunning the dark mechanicus can be. The Iron hands being able to be battle ready within a day of rondayvooing isn't a big stretch for my imagination as their all clan company's were all pretty self sufficient from each other so each clan would have re-structured itself without changing there place in the legion. As for internal politics I can see that being put on hold as their primarch just died and the sons of Medusa are to hot headed to bow out of the fight.

What interested me was the Raven Guards armour and the custom designed stealth systems. It sounds like the Iron hands are deviating from the mechanicus "set pattern" etc. That he wonders weather his brothers will be horrified or he will be commended is a nice incite into the tech of the Iron hands.

[Deepsix81]

I liked Kryptos, It was only a short story but it shows how cunning the dark mechanicus can be. The Iron hands being able to be battle ready within a day of rondayvooing isn't a big stretch for my imagination as their all clan company's were all pretty self sufficient from each other so each clan would have re-structured itself without changing there place in the legion. As for internal politics I can see that being put on hold as their primarch just died and the sons of Medusa are to hot headed to bow out of the fight.

Fair enough. Maybe my perceptions are a little bit off. Maybe the anger and retaliatory instinct of the Iron Hands was strong enough to propel them into a fighting mindset as opposed to grieving or shock. But this would absolutely be (at least in my mind) a departure from the behavior that has come with other instances of primarchs being injured/killed/believed to be killed.

- The Luna Wolves as a legion came to a halt as they believed Horus to have been killed on Davin.
- The Night Lords became a fractured band of scavenging space pirates after Curze allowed himself to be assassinated.
- Lorgar seemed to be genuinely surprised to learn that one of his brothers could be killed.
- The Iron Hands removed and replaced their body parts to follow their father's example (erroneously perhaps - Wrath of Iron)
- The Iron Hands recovered from the beheading of their father and became a cohesive, guerilla (-ish) fighting force a day after the greatest treachery to date in the Horus Heresy.

One of these doesn't seem to fit. Maybe this doesn't warrant any additional mention. To think that a fighting force would regroup and, you know, fight, isn't very far-fetched. But it seems that they have handled their father's loss more capably and admirably than any other time that I can think of.

By politics, I don't mean backstabbing or positioning for leadership. But there is an obvious leadership void, and I'm interested to see how they would handle that. Most of Ferrus' most trusted hands were on Isstvan and killed alongside of him, so I'd just be interested to see who was holding the legion together and how they decided to become a more flexible attacking force.

[Ragnarfan_12]

well think about when Guliman killed hte possible alpharius i know that its all up in the air and that no one really knows if it was truly him or not but they didnt despair they hit right back even harder

[brother alinski]

- The Iron Hands recovered from the beheading of their father and became a cohesive, guerilla (-ish) fighting force a day after the greatest treachery to date in the Horus Heresy.

One of these doesn't seem to fit. Maybe this doesn't warrant any additional mention. To think that a fighting force would regroup and, you know, fight, isn't very far-fetched. But it seems that they have handled their father's loss more capably and admirably than any other time that I can think of.

By politics, I don't mean backstabbing or positioning for leadership. But there is an obvious leadership void, and I'm interested to see how they would handle that. Most of Ferrus' most trusted hands were on Isstvan and killed alongside of him, so I'd just be interested to see who was holding the legion together and how they decided to become a more flexible attacking force.

Not all of Ferrus Mannus officers were at Isstavan. The Iron Hands Warleader from Little Horus, Shadrak Meduson wasn't and there will have been others. Ferrus Mannus did rush ahead with only a small part of his Legion. Also it will have taken them more than a day to travel to the rondayvoo point. What it says is that within a day of meeting they were a fighting force again. Months might have passed as they travelled in the warp.

Also the Gorrilla fighting force analogy is taken from the Raven guards point of view, It could be what he describes as the breaking down of the legion into small mobile forces is the clans going there own way, following their own Warleaders. So it could be nobody is holding the Legion together.

[shadowhawk2008]

Ferrus took his Morlocks, the Terminators, most of them at any rate. So the legion ended up losing a big contingent of its veterans and their arms, no less their Primarch and First Captain.

[lovelessmerc]

wow, leave the hawk alone, I too love almost every Bl book out there even the killing ground wasn't that bad, it was a horror story set in the 40k, kind of wish they'd make more like that. I want some mad spoilers though. Just read Wrath of Iron and I am on a seriouse Iron Hands kick. And regarding how the Iron Hands mobilized so quick, Only clan avernii( the morlocks) led by Santar were at istavan they were the veterans and such. There are atleast 8 other clans with thier command structers intact. sorry for the godawful spelling and grammer.

[brother alinski]

Only clan avernii( the morlocks) led by Santar were at istavan they were the veterans and such. There are atleast 8 other clans with thier command structers intact. sorry for the godawful spelling and grammer.

HAHA don't worry about the spellings man. There isn't anything that I've read that says Clan Avernii were the Merlocks, I thought the Merlocks were the elite Terminators made from vets from all the clans. Clan Avernii was the clan company that Gabriel belonged to. Or have I missed something?

[lovelessmerc]

Sorry if that came off as sounding like a fact regarding avernii, but imo the morlocks were one and all avernii, in Nick Kyme's short when they are fighting the eldar It seemed to me like the Clans were divided into Devs. assualt, and termi. I need to re-read it.

[shadowhawk2008]

Do you know Cyborg from Teen Titans (or the more "pleasing" version from the Smallville TV series) or the new Justice League reboot? That's our Iron Hand from Kryptos :-) And he comes with a specially modified bolter (I got the feeling that this was a stripped down version of a Stalker-pattern but with a longer barrel, not sure). It was a short and sweet exploration of the concept that the Iron Hands go so far to modify themselves. I *think* that Graham reined the whole idea in nicely and didn't go overboard with it. If they explore it more, that'd be great. I asked Graham about it and he said the Iron Hand and Raven Guard from Kryptos will be reappearing sometime in the near future in more stuff.

Maybe a *new line* of eShorts?

Also, I really didn't like the names for the two. Supposedly there's a reason for their names that Graham is going to explain in more stuff but in Kryptos the names really bothered me.

[brother alinski]

Sorry if that came off as sounding like a fact regarding avernii, but imo the morlocks were one and all avernii, in Nick Kyme's short when they are fighting the eldar It seemed to me like the Clans were divided into Devs. assualt, and termi. I need to re-read it.

Na man that's cool. Sorry If I came across as an arrogant Know it all, I haven't read the Primarchs yet so if your basing the Avernii thing on that who am I to argue.

But aww thats gonna change my perception of pre-heresy Iron Hands, No more 2 Iron Hands devastators from different clans standing back to back after there respective squads got butchered/separated ,Taunting each other about who's better etc. Damn!

[shadowhawk2008]

Well, not conclusive by ANY means, but in Wrath of Iron each clan functions as a self-sufficient reinforced company with all branches of the Astartes military.

[BlackLegion]

Well it was anice read. But i don't understand how a stasis field generator can work INSIDE its own generated stasis field? Ok it might work but then the generator is in stasis too and the field would never shut down...

[AdamR]

Think of it like a stasis donut.
Only the dough is stopped, the jam keeps on going.