"Some have called us the Angels of Death. It is a name well chosen, for we bring redemption to those who need it the most -- the cold and final redemption of the grave."
- — Primaris Ancient Thracius Decoglorian
A Redemptor Dreadnought of the Ultramarines Chapter accompanies its fellow Primaris Astartes on patrol.
The Redemptor Dreadnought is a new pattern of Adeptus Astartes Dreadnought specifically created to serve alongside the Primaris Space Marines. It, like the standard pattern Castraferrum Dreadnought, is intended to provide mortally wounded Primaris Astartes with another chance to continue to serve the Emperor.
Redemptor Dreadnoughts are giant war engines that crush bone and splinter skulls as they bludgeon through the enemy ranks. Taller, broader and more cunningly wrought than the Dreadnoughts of traditional design, these goliaths of battle are powered by hyper-dense Plasma Reactors and sophisticated fibre bundles.
They can accelerate from a thudding stomp to a thunderous, loping gait that shakes the ground, barrelling through hails of fire in glorious defiance.
One jointed arm of the Redemptor is given over either to a devastating Heavy Onslaught Gatling Cannon -- a rotary ballistic weapon that can chew through a band of Heretic Astartes in a single pass -- or a Macro Plasma Incinerator, a weapon that harnesses the heat of captive suns to melt enemy tanks to bubbling sludge.
The other arm ends in an articulated Dreadnought-sized Power Fist of advanced design called a Redemptor Fist. With this pistoned gauntlet the Redemptor can tear even Tyranid bio-beasts and Daemon Engines apart at close quarters.
An Ultramarines Redemptor Dreadnought.
Such is the miraculous design of the Redemptor's neural links that its inhabitant, despite being entombed in a box-like sarcophagus within the Dreadnought's torso, can exercise control with surprising dexterity and speed.
Yet it is whispered that the advanced systems of the Redemptor are a curse as well as a blessing.
The Martian tech-savants in the service of Archmagos Dominus Belisarius Cawl who first built these walking machines of destruction spared little thought to the health of the incumbent, seeing him as little more than another part to be interred or replaced as necessary.
Many of those Redemptors that have fought for a sustained period have already had their sarcophagi replaced, their original pilots burned out by the intensity of the machine's destructive prowess.
Notable Redemptor Dreadnoughts
- Malcades (Ultramarines Chapter) - Malcades was a Redemptor Dreadnought in service to the Ultramarines Chapter who was the first Primaris Space Marine to fall in battle in the Realm of Ultramar during the Indomitus Crusade. After being placed within the shell of a Redemptor Dreadnought, he fought in the Plague Wars on the Ultramaran world of Espandor against the forces of the Plague God.
- Asger the Frozen (Space Wolves Chapter) - Asger the Frozen was a Space Wolf of Ragnar Blackmane's Great Company who also served in the Task Force Icepelt sent under the command of the Primaris Astartes Battle Leader Haldor Icepelt to the world of Vigilus during the War of Beasts. The task force sought to protect Vigilus' water supplies from infection by the toxins of the gene-sect of the Pauper Princes Genestealer Cult known as the Claw of the Thirsting Wyrm. The Space Wolves hunted the Thirsting Wyrm into the vast subterranean complex in the Oteck Hivesprawl of Vigilus that lay below the great water reservoir known as Geigan's Hollow. A long, gruelling hunt with a fierce battle at its conclusion is a way of life upon Fenris, and the Thirsting Wyrm soon found to their cost that the sons of Russ did not tire easily. As he fought through the main purification plant of Greigan Hollow, Haldor detoured to unite with a towering Redemptor Dreadnought -- Asger the Frozen. The cybernetic war machine's piston-driven strength let him smash a path through rockcrete walls and wrench foot-thick pipes aside whenever the strike force's path was barred. The Space Wolves ultimately succeeded in destroying the portion of the complex that was seeding Vigilus' water supply with xenos toxins intended to make the planet's population more susceptible to manipualtion by the psychic hypnosis and suggestion commands of the Purestrain Genestealers and cult Maguses.
Wargear
A Deathwatch Redemptor Dreadnought and Primaris Space Marines take the fight to the xenos foe.
- Heavy Onslaught Gatling Cannon (right arm)
- Heavy Flamer (underslung below Redemptor Fist)
- Icarus Rocket Pod (mounted above head, personal air defence)
- 2 Fragstorm Grenade Launchers (mounted in carapace torso)
- Redemptor Fist (left arm)
- Macro Plasma Incinerator (As replacement for Heavy Onslaught Gatling Cannon)
- Onslaught Gatling Cannon (As replacement for Heavy Flamer)
- 2 Storm Bolters (As replacement for 2 Fragstorm Grenade Launchers)
Sources
- Codex Adeptus Astartes - Space Marines (8th Edition), pp. 83, 115, 166
- Codex Adeptus Astartes - Blood Angels (8th Edition) pg. 53
- Codex Adeptus Astartes - Dark Angels (8th Edition), pp. 52, 102
- Codex Adeptus Astartes - Deathwatch (8th Edition), pp. 46-47, 74-75
- Codex: Space Marines (8th Edition) (Revised Codex), pp. 80, 137
- Dark Imperium (Novel) by Guy Haley, Ch. 21
- Imperium Nihilus - Vigilus Defiant (8th Edition), pg. 30
- Primaris Space Marines FAQ
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