War Dog

The Dreadblade War Dog Executioner Empyrean Scythe piloted by Aesyr, armed with two War Dog Autocannons and a Diabolus Heavy Stubber.

A War Dog is the designation given by the Imperium of Man to any Chaos Knight that was originally an Armiger Pattern Knight of any class. Several specialised variants of this class of combat walker found only among the forces of Chaos also exist.

Loping forwards on powerful mechanical legs, War Dogs close upon their foes like bestial predators. With each stride the grating pant of their engines grows louder, and the shudder created by their metallic footfalls becomes more inescapable.

As soon as they are in range of their prey the War Dogs open fire. Fusillades of solid shot from their War Dog Autocannons saw through lines of infantry, while those outfitted with Daemonbreath Spears unleash superheated blasts that vaporise flesh and reduce armoured targets to flaming wreckage.

The most rapacious War Dogs then barrel towards their reeling enemies, massacring whoever is left standing with brutal swipes of their Reaper Chain-cleavers.

History

The smallest of the Knight chassis do not require their pilot to have bonded with a Throne Mechanicum in order to be operated. Instead, a device called a Helm Mechanicum is employed to integrate the synapses of its wearer to the servos of the Knight.

A Helm Mechanicum also forcefully subserviates the Fallen Noble who dons it, leashing their conscious and subconscious thoughts to those of their bond-liege. The personal desires of the War Dog pilot can be replaced at any time by those of their master. It is this technology that allows the smaller Knights to serve as utterly loyal squires.

A pair of War Dogs stalk across the smoke-shrouded battlefield in search of their next prey. Though they are free to hunt in isolation, the pilots of these war engines still receive commands through the neural links of their Helms Mechanicum.

As is the case with a Throne Mechanicum, only formidable warriors are able to link themselves to a Helm Mechanicum. Many of the techno-arcane mechanisms that protect Thrones from perversion are absent from Helms, and as such the smaller Knights have fallen to Chaos in greater numbers than their larger counterparts.

Many of those that showed signs of warped deviance were exterminated by their own houses, the corrupted Knights hunted down and destroyed. Any Fallen Nobles that still lived were dragged from the wreckage of their suits, whereupon they were burned, impaled or drawn and quartered.

All record of such treachery was typically stricken from the history of the Knight house. But in other cases, the corruption of several Helms Mechanicum led to the downfall of an entire Knight World. The connection that allows a bond-liege to command their squires served as the vector by which the Warp taint spread throughout the house, turning barons and baronesses, high kings and queens, into mad barbarians and unwitting servants of the Dark Gods.

Role

A Knight Despoiler slave-linked to two War Dogs.

Like the Armiger Pattern Knights still loyal to the Imperium, War Dogs are piloted by warriors hailing from the lower strata of a Fallen Knight World's nobility. Their purpose is to be subservient, to carry out whatever orders they are given, and to fight and die at the behest of their liege.

Before falling to Chaos, these warriors were renowned for carrying out their instructions with pride, dutifully adhering to the tenets of humility and compliance that had been instilled in them since birth.

Now, however, corrupted by the Warp as they are, they have a ravenous desire for personal glory. This is accompanied by a deep loathing for the upper echelons of their Knightly household, those who lord their power over the lesser Nobles.

The House Khymere War Dog Scorched Fury piloted by Uthren, armed with Thermal Spear, Reaper Chain-cleaver and Diabolus Heavy Stubber.

But despite the burning resentment held by the War Dog pilots, they are still bound into service by their Helms Mechanicum. The arcane circuitry of the Helm causes personal impulses and desires to be summarily overwritten by the commands of their taskmaster, compelling the warriors into abject thralldom.

Yet from the Warp-infused Helms Mechanicum there also comes a constant stream of whispers and daemonic ravings, extolling the pilot's incomparable strength and decrying the lowly position they hold in their household. This breeds thoughts of usurpation in the pilot's mind, and gives rise to dreams of the unfettered power they could wield if only they were to overthrow those who rule over them. It is this unattainable desire to be unshackled that fuels the War Dogs' insanity, and hones their fury.

In battle, War Dogs are often deployed to eradicate those foes who are deemed beneath the notice of their despotic masters. Yet even the most ignominious task they carry out with savage fervour. The pain and suffering they inflict on others feeds their hatred, for through the dying screams of their enemies they are able to imagine the deaths of their own Fallen Noble overlords.

Such grim musings do not go unnoticed by other Chaos Knights, but are tolerated nonetheless. After all, it is the hatred of their station that makes War Dogs so eager to prove their worth in battle.

Unit Composition

• 1-3 War Dogs

Wargear

• Diabolous Heavy Stubber
• Daemonbreath Spear
• Reaper Chain-cleaver
• 2 War Dog Autocannons (As replacements for Daemonbreath Spear and Reaper Chain-cleaver)
• Daemonbreath Meltagun (As replacement for Heavy Stubber)
• Ion Shield

Variants

• War Dog Executioner
• War Dog Stalker
• War Dog Karnivore
• War Dog Brigand
• War Dog Huntsman

Ordo Malleus Departmento Analyticus Technical Specifications

The technical specifications of the War Dog have not yet been obtained by the Holy Ordos of the Inquisition.

Sources

• Codex: Chaos Knights (8th Edition), pp. 26, 39, 53