| abstract | - The most common Castellan-type Battle Automata in service with the Imperium is the Castellax-class. Developed from its ancient forebears, it was primarily intended for siege work and shock assaults. Primarily intended for siege work and shock assault, the Castellax Battle-Automata is a hulking humanoid machine thrice the height of a man, with a notoriously aggressive and responsive Machine Spirit and an enviable reputation on the battlefield. Its armoured endoskeleton is proof against small-arms fire and highly resistant to damage thanks to its durable design and the presence of the same Atomantic Shielding technology that features on the Legiones Astartes Contemptor Pattern Dreadnought. The Castellax, employed in large numbers by the Legio Cybernetica, has a standard configuration of Bolter and Bolt Cannon armament, and is able to maintain a punishing barrage of firepower as it advances. Rarer configurations, however, included Battle-Automata equipped with Flamer units or the arcane and powerful Darkfire heavy photon thruster cannon. During the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy many Solar Auxilia cohorts and Legiones Astartes went to war accompanied by attached Cybernetica maniples. Some were bonded by compacts forged in the crucibles of war, the Battle-automata even bore the same colours and heraldry as the auxiliaries or Space Marine Legions themselves. The Castellax-class was a mainstay both of the Legio Cybernetica and the elite defensive formations of many Forge Worlds, who relied on its formidable power for their protection. Some in the Imperial hierarchy saw the steady increase in the number of these war machines as a sleeping threat to the supremacy of the Imperium should the Mechanicum ever default on its treaty of mutual support with the Emperor. History was to take a different course, and in a few short years with the outbreak of the Horus Heresy, thousands of these war engines would be broken on the wheel of war, and the Castellax was never to be seen again in such numbers.
|
