Betrayer: Possible 30k/40k WE/BA Easter Egg?

[frostclaw222]

Finished reading Betrayer the other day. AD-B kicked some serious butt (again), but this morning I woke up with a curious thought.

 

The Ursus claws utilized by the Conqueror and the attached Titan Legio were incredibly similar in nature to the magna grapples found in the Blood Angels dreadnought options in the new codex. 

 

Anybody else catch this? If so, what do you think AD-B was hinting at? 

[Kol Saresk]

Well to be honest, I thought he was referring to the ursus claws in the World Eaters' entry in Forgeworld's Betrayal. I can easily be wrong though.

[frostclaw222]

Oh. They're there, too. Forgot that. I just think it's an interesting parallel between the World Eaters and the Blood Angels.

[T0MMY]

I would have thought that any pre-heresy technology that one Legion had could / is likely to be shared by other Legions. Post-heresy some of the technology may be lost or replaced with other (Codex) methods of fightng, but there's no reason why a Chapter, especially one of the 1st Founding, wouldn't have similar technology / weapons... No great mystery there. 

[b1soul]

I think it shows nothing more than both BA and WE like to get up close and persona. 

 

I want some awesome BA vs. WE action at the siege of Terra

[frostclaw222]

HH: Betrayal suggests the ursus claws were specific to a particular Forge World, and that both the WE and the Legio Audax/Adaux (sorry, book isn't in front of me) were behind rescuing it, and sort of laid claim to it as a vassal world. 

 

Now, this wouldn't strictly prevent tech drift to Baal or its attendant Forge World(s), but I would think that either a) the tech would be more universal, or b) the tech would've been extinguished in the Scouring, when whomever cleansed any remaining WE vassal worlds extinguished the Forge World in question. 

 

As b1soul says, it could just be a function of both legions liking it up close and personal, and perhaps both the ursus claws and the magna grapple draw on the same precursor STC model, held in other repositories in other parts of Martian Dominion. But it just strikes me as maybe the author (either AD-B or the FW Heresy folks before him) were suggesting something a little more. 

[Brother Heinrich]

I can never take the Ursus Claws seriously again seeing as the name is literally "Bear Claws." I just imagine the World Eater ships and Legio Audax titans firing massive pastries at their foes.

 

But more on topic, I agree with T0MMY, many Legion customs and methods were shared and embraced by multiple legions. After the HH the roots and genesis of many of these practices were forgotten. For example Black Templars chaining their weapons after Sigismund picked it up from the WE, or the Ultramarines painting helmets red for censure after the Night Lords custom of painting gauntlets red for legionnaires marked for death. Or how about the entire Imperial Faith being penned by the first traitor Primarch.

[Reasonable Commissar]

I cant take them very seriously when they are fire on spaceships like a big harpoon and drag another ship closer, didnt seem very realistic to me.

[Kol Saresk]

Actually it reminded me of Serenity when Malcolm led the Charge of the Reavers. But actually considering all the things like tractor beams, which are essentially the same thing, it sort of does make sense. If Star Trek and Star Wars can have gravity beams that reel in ships, why can't 40K have actual hooks used to reel in enemy ships to make boarding easier? Didn't similar things happen in the old days back when there was a Spanish Armada?

[Greyall]

Harpooning multi[mega]ton vessels in the void to bring their crews for a beating takes precedence over realism.

[T0MMY]

Harpooning multi[mega]ton vessels in the void to bring their crews for a beating takes precedence over realism.

 

Let's have a doodle then please Mr Greyall!

[Greyall]

Oh, I'm pretty lousy at vehicles, and lousier as the size increases. But the beating part is perfectly doable :)

[Kol Saresk]

Ooh, a Zone Mortalis from Greyall. That promises to be a treat all by itself.

[GhostMalone]

It's not that unrealistic the conqueror would fire like 30 over sized harpoons into specific sections of the enemy then painstakingly drag them in. If we can harpoon a whale we can harpoon a xenos or a loyalist!!

 

Greyall your my hero for your world eaters sketches!

[Kol Saresk]

Boarding hooks! That's what I was thinking of! In the olden days ships would get hooks into the enemy's rigging so they could drag them closer and then keep them level to make boarding easier! Ursus Claws are just really big boarding hooks for outer space!

[GhostMalone]

That can also transport bloodthirsty psychos into the bowels of your vessel

[Reasonable Commissar]

The scale of it doesnt seem to work though when you are talking about vessels kilometers long and hundreds+ kilometers apart. In Butchers Nails audio book they just spam a load of them in an area around them.

 

Not to mention the chains which are able to pull kilometer long starships while they are trying to escape.

[Kol Saresk]

People use to reel in boats with ropes and a hook using their arms horizontally across moving water. A giant chain being reeled in with magnets in a frictionless vacuum definitely soundss feasible.