Termite

A Terrax Pattern Termite Assault Drill

The Termite, also called the Termite Assault Drill, and the Terrax Pattern Termite Assault Drill, is an Imperial Subterranean Vehicle utilised by the Adeptus Mechanicus as an underground transport. These vehicles are better known colloquially as "tunnellers" or "miners."

The Termite is the smallest of the tunnellers. The Termite, as well as its counterparts the Mole and the Hellbore, use a phase-field generator as well as a ring of Melta Cutters and a huge, heavy-bore drill to burrow through the ground, whereas the Hades Breaching Drill uses a more "brute-force" approach that applies only physical drills.

In the 41st Millennium the Termite Assault Drill carries two squads of Astra Militarum troops and the various Termites are organised into squadrons for tactical purposes. Termite squadrons all use the same tunnel, each following behind the other and branching to the surface only at the last moment.

History

An Imperial Termite

The first patterns of the Termite Assault Drill was created sometime in the 30th Millennium during the Unification Wars. It was first utilised by the Legiones Astartes of the XVIII Legion in the Assault of the Tempest Galleries, during the overthrow of the Ethnarch of the Caucasus Wastes, a despotic techno-barbarian state located in the Caucasus Peninsula of the ancient European continent of Old Earth. The XVIII Legion utilised scores of freshly created gigantic Termite subterranean boring machines fitted with recently acquired technology from Mars. Once they were ready, the XVIII Legion saluted their Emperor and calmly mounted the untested Martian war engines of the Mechanicum. They pierced the dark earth and rock at the edge of the Caucasus Wastes, disappearing into a deadly and unknown world to assault the subterranean Tempest Galleries of the Caucasus Wastes.

Originally designed on Terra for the task of rooting out burrowing xenos species during the Great Crusade, canny commanders quickly found use for the Terrax Pattern Termite Assault Drill in tearing through the foundations of enemy bastions or emerging behind barricades or trench lines to lay waste to their defenders. A specialised infantry transport vehicle, the Termite is capable of bringing a full squad of warriors to the battlefield whilst bypassing enemy auspex and atmospheric scanners.

A Terrax Pattern Termite Assault Drill used during the Horus Heresy.

These vehicles were also used by the Silent Sisterhood for direct assaults on Renegade strongholds too heavily fortified for the limited ranks of the Silent Sisterhood to take by storm. When the time comes for these Termites to be sent into battle, they are issued to those warriors best suited to press home the attack. Regardless of whether it be by two-handed Execution Blade or flaming torrent of promethium gel, there are few foes that can withstand the onslaught of the Null Maidens of the Sisters of Silence once their fortifications are breached.

In another notable campaign of the Horus Heresy, the Termite played a decisive role in the capture of the world of Abfall B, when the whole of the elite First Company Templar Brethren of the Imperial Fists Legion were transported underground into the heart of the Traitor stronghold by more than fifty Termites, appearing behind the enemy's lines and to cause maximum disruption.

Since that bygone era, Imperial military forces have continued to utilise Termite transport vehicles. Rather than taking their troops across the ground, or through the air, the Termite burrows deep beneath the earth, launched from a surface transport far behind enemy lines. It uses a combination of Melta Cutters, phase-shield generators and huge heavy-bore drills to chew through the ground beneath the foe to emerge behind the lines or in the heart of enemy fortifications. The Termite is armed with deadly weapons -- with a choice of bolters, Volkite Chargers or Heavy Flamers -- that punish any nearby foes before it disgorges its deadly cargo to bring death and ruin.

Unit Composition

• 1 Terrax Pattern Termite Assault Drill

Wargear

• 2 pintle-mounted twin-linked Bolters

• Melta Cutter

• 2 pintle-mounted twin-linked Volkite Chargers (As replacements for bolters)

• 2 pintle-mounted Heavy Flamers (As replacements for bolters)

Notable Termite Variants

• Terrax Pattern Termite Assault Drill - The Terrax Pattern Termite Assault Drill is an ancient pattern of subterranean transport utilised by the Legiones Astartes and the Sisters of Silence during the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy of the 30th and 31st Millennia. It is not known if this ancient pattern of Termite is still utilised by the present Imperial military forces of the 41st Millennium.

See Also

• Mole
• Hellbore

Sources

• Armies of the Imperium, pp. 32, 59-62
• Ork and Squat Warlords (Warhammer 40,000 Epic Supplement), pg. 62
• The Horus Heresy - Book Two: Massacre (Forge World Series) by Alan Bligh, "Salamanders Legion - Exemplar Battles: The Assault on the Tempest Galleries," pp. 132-133, 135
• White Dwarf 116 (UK), "Imperial Vehicles," by Graeme Davis & Jervis Johnson, pp. 10-11, 15
• White Dwarf 123 (UK), "Epic Battles - Space Marine War Machines," by Karl Tebbutt and Roger Gerrish, pp. 24-25
• White Dwarf 136 (UK), "Games Workshop Catalog: Imperial Tanks & War Machines," pg. 75
• Warhammer: The Horus Heresy Second Edition - Liber Imperium (Specialty Game), pg. 62
• Warhammer Community - Forge World Preview: Termite Assault Drill

Galleries

A Termite and its transport

A Termite that breaching the surface behind an enemy position, ready to disgorge its Imperial Guard cargo to attack.

A Terrax Pattern Termite Assault Drill (oblique view)

A Terrax Pattern Termite Assault Drill (Front View); note the large drill bit which utilises a powerful phase-field generator to burrow through the ground.

A Terrax Pattern Termite Assault Drill (Rear View); the powerful propulsion engines help propel a Termite forwards through the plethora of environmental hazards, between grinding tectonic plates and seas of magma.

A close-up view of a Terrax Pattern Termite Assault Drill's massive cargo door and mounted, twin-linked Volkite Chargers.