[WIP] Dark Mechanicum - The Silence below

[Dreagher]

Hello everyone!

After my small allied mechanicum detachment is in the process of becoming a full army, I decided to start a new blog for them. I will try to post something as often as possible, but seeing as I plan on converting every model at least a little bit, progress might be slower than I'm used to.

Also a giant thanks to Vykes for a lot of help with the fluff!

The world of Kymerus II was first colonized at a now unknown period dating back before the Age of Strife. When contact was lost, a small mechanicum explorator vessel from the Belt of Iron attempted to reinitiate contact with the forgeworld. Instead of a thriving mechanicum center, they found only the half submerged ruins of a once flourishing forgeworld.
The limit of human habitation had been reduced to only a few populated islands, whose human descendants had regressed into a pre-industrial level of technology and governance. After the Conclave of the Iron Belt, mechanicum representatives from Stiranex and Obellion III concluded that resettlement was the best viable option. Those forgeworlds would direct efforts into the resettlement of Khymerus II, sending small teams ahead of the vast convoys of gallions filled with tectonic stabilizers and prefabricated geothermal conductors. Mechanicum exploratory teams found the toppled spires of the ancient forges in ruins. The derelict structures judged beyond salvage, were stripped of essential parts, and a new place of settlement planned to become the heart of mechanicum operations. The new force would be established around the marine vents along an undersea volcano which would supply ample power to the fledgling forge. Mount Kiluea, became the first mechanicum facility to be built on Kymerus II since the age of strife. But with tumultuous warpstorms plaguing the region, the convoys never arrived. Further expeditions were dismissed, and Kymerus II would remain isolated for a century.
But progress had not stopped on Kymerus II, and after nearly a century the station had grown considerably in size. Mount Kiluea’s forge had spread, hollowing out the undersea mountain and stretching towards the surface in massive spires.
It was in this time that the first rumors began to spread of a prophet, one claiming to hear the voice of the Omnissiah emanating from a breach in realspace. This anomaly would be known in later eras, as Lacrimosus Spirae. The realspace breach was largely ignored by the forge leaders until it began to expand and fluctuate. Discontentment ran rife through the upper eshelons of the forge, coming to a head after an attempted assassination plot, against the so called prophet Iwaes, was foiled. Dissidents took to calling themselves the Vox Eius. They took to the gathering places, and open rebellion seized Mount Kiluea.
Leadership in the forges enacted purification and subjugation protocols, quelling uprisings with merciless force. In the wake of several high profile repressive pogroms against cult sympathizers, the leadership led an exodus to the surface and took shelter in the desiccated ruins of the abandoned forges, once deemed beyond repair by the explorators. While thought to be beyond resettlement, armed expeditions by the mechanicum overseers came to a halt in the crumbling labyrinthine ruins. Soon, strange reports of unnatural warp creatures inhabiting the bowels of the labyrinths emerged. In order to protect the rest of the planet, melta charges were used to destroy every known entrance to those ruins, in the vain hope of trapping its inhabitants forever.
To make matters worse, once steadfast and loyal members of House Kymerus began to record and detail similar audio-visual signals, thought to be from the Omnissiah. The Screaming Vortex continued to violently expand, though few attributed the resurgent voices with the aetheric disturbance. Others, troubled by these reports, began work on a series of overlapping surface-based geller field generators to protect themselves from the predations of the warp. City defenses became even stricter until all external access was halted on pain of death. Forge Kiluea was sealed under order of Fabricator-General Iosoqth Eibira. The most important members of the magi would be placed into stasis to re-emerge when aetheric scryers detected the passing of the warp tumult.
The warpstorms which had engulfed Kymerus II shrank once more, releasing the planet from its grip in 842 M30, 44 years after the great crusade had taken to the stars. Deep in the hibernating halls of the slumbering forges, old sensors detected the threshold safeties had been reached. Re-emergence subroutines toggled a systemic all clear, and the lockdown was ended.
As the first mechanicum adepts emerged, they discovered that their forges had once more fallen into disrepair and were nothing but empty halls bereft of their former glory. Many areas were flooded and barbarians, creatures, and worse roamed many sections of what were once promising hab zones.
The mechanicum exerted what force they could and an effort was made to salvage any materials from the surface in order to reap new organic components for their cybernetic levies and raw materials to rebuild and rearm. House Kymerus would rebuild, though the time needed to reach the previous thresholds would be significant.
They were not given the luxury of time. Roaming Ork warbands flooded in-system now that the warp storms had subsided, launching raids on the salvage teams from House Kiluea. What forces could be assembled from Kymerus's Legio Tagmata would test themselves against the Ork. They proudly strode into battle against the greenskins, but losses were severe and defeat seemed inevitable. Even as recall and last-stand protocols were drawn up, distress signals were sent from aged receivers with little hope of rescue.
But rescue did arrive in a form none of the mechanicum could have foreseen. Silver fleets of unknown vessels arrived in-system, announcing themselves as warriors from the XIV legiones astartes, the Dusk Raiders. The skies of Kymerus II seemed to burn as their 22nd Company made planet fall and fell into the unprotected rear of the ork-army. Indebted to the warriors who had answered the call, and renewing bonds of unity long since thought extinguished, the Fabricator-General pledged the legio's service to the cause of the XVIth legion. A vow that would change them fundamentally by the end of the Great Crusade in the days when the Dusk Raiders would transform themselves on Barbarus to emerge as Mortarion's Death Guard.

Edited May 5, 2021 by Dreagher

[Vykes]

Heh, heyas Dreagher, mate.  Glad to see ya put it up.  Can't wait to see what ya have in store for the Mech project.  Underwater themes are criminallly underused and can be absolutely awesome.  Gotta love Big Daddy style robots (wish I could do that style of painting, I just can't seem to really get it).

 

Leeeets see, might just wanna right align the font and double space them a bit, helps with some legibility is all.  It's really does look like a great project!

[Rabidbunneh]

Oh wow, that dark scheme coupled with the OSL really pop.

[Dreagher]

Here is the first of my Vorax with a completed base. The idea for those guys was what started this whole project.

@Rabidbunneh Thanks! I started learning how to do osl specifically for him, so its great that it worked.

@Vykes I have some smaller ones in the making. ;)

Also I am currently going a bit over the top with my first HQ. (an archmagos malagra)

[Beren]

Well... that's awesome. You're really hitting the aquatic theme well.

[Vykes]

H'ooooh dude, now that Vorax is killer.  Seriously awesome idea, part matrix and part mechanicum in the best way possible.  Man, I am so so very much waiting on this, seriously awesome idea.  Lil' Big Daddies sound like they'll be a blast. 

 

Seriously rockin the theme mate. 

[Pearson73]

I'm a big fan of the Vorax, looking forward to the Archmagos too.

[Dreagher]

Due to the fact that I changed a lot on the archmagos model, it will take a bit longer than expected. In the meantime, here are two only lightly converted Castellax. The right one actually took more time, because I cut up his entire kneesection to change his pose.

Thanks to all the positive reactions, it really motivates me to put as much work in as possible!

[Rabidbunneh]

That squiddy Vorax is really cool, I like the big daddy Castellax as well. Is that drill from the Ork dread?

[Dreagher]

@Rabidbunneh Thanks! Yes, it's from a Killa Kan.

Only one more Vorax to go before the unit is finished.

[Dreagher]

After I didn't have a good idea for the base of the last vorax, I instead put some paint on one of the Castellax.

[Dreagher]

With this guy, the vorax unit is finally complete.

[Pearson73]

Nice work on the last two Automata, the glossy eyes on the Vorax give a really unsettling insectoid effect.

[Dreagher]

@Pearson73 Thanks!

 

For the Boxing Day Challenge I speedpainted two tech-thralls. Now there are only over 30 more to go.

[Marshal Rohr]

Love the tech-thralls!

[Rabidbunneh]

That Vorax is really unsettling, I can't wait to see more of this army.

[Brother Pheidias]

Friggin nice and moody painting. Got a spooky Olde Dyver vibe here, really cool if that's the concept!

[Dreagher]

@Marshal Rohr Thanks! I only have 32 more to go...

@Rabidbunneh I hope I can live up to the expectation. The idea for them was what started everything in the first place.

@Brother Pheidias Well, my magos model is totaly just a coincidence. ;)

With the paint on the next 8 Tech-thralls currently drying, I finalysed the concept for my archmistress. After several different versions I settled on something a bit smaller and with a cleaner look (and totaly not Bioshock inspired ).

[Pearson73]

Liking the Archmistress and the style in which you've based her. Could we get some shots from other angles?

[Dreagher]

Liking the Archmistress and the style in which you've based her. Could we get some shots from other angles?

Ask and you shall recieve.

[Dreagher]

As the work on the Magos is going a bit slow at the moment. I started working on my second troops choice, in order to get a playable force ready.

I'm still a bit undecided on their look and the question if I should give alle of them the same spikes on their back, or not.

What do you think?

[Vykes]

Man, I love the look there.  Hmmm.... I think that if there's more, spikes on the back would be great, the only other option is if you snagged some webbed spines, but personally I think the spikes sell it and if you needed unit denotation, just a bit of variation on the colour for the spines is more than enough.  And that archmistress is a fantastic one, great base and perfectly dynamic pose. It's looking great,mate! 

[Beren]

Can we get a shot of them from behind?

[Dreagher]

Can we get a shot of them from behind?

[Beren]

I'd say that the one on the left could have it's first spine shortened a tad like its compatriot. Otherwise it's looking sweet!