Today we take a look at one of the most iconic machines of the Imperium. Let’s learn more about the Space Marine Dreadnought.
The Space Marine can be useful to the Imperium of Man even on the verge of death Let’s learn more about the Dreadnought war suit.
Via: Lexicanum
The Space Marine Dreadnought is a massive war-machine piloted by an honoured Space Marine hero whose body has been ravaged in battle. The most commonly used pattern as of M41 is the Castraferrum Pattern (or MkIV and MkV), but many variants exist. Dreadnoughts also known as the Old Ones in the Space Marines Chapters.
A Space Marine Dreadnought is a large, walking tank which carries both powerful guns and lethal close combat weaponry, armoured to withstand all but the most powerful of enemy firepower and often relied on by Space Marine forces to tear an opening in enemy defenses. Each Dreadnought contains a living being, permanently interfaced with the machine through a form of Mind Impulse Unit. Dreadnoughts are surprisingly agile, able to walk and balance with the ease of a living creature.
It is said that old proto-Dreadnoughts of the Unification wars could be piloted by non-Adeptus Astartes warriors, but later only Space Marines could be inherited in them.
The pilots within Dreadnoughts are Marines who have suffered mortal wounds in battle, maimed and crippled beyond recovery – instead of being mercifully killed, the greatest heroes are instead given what is considered the honour of continuing to serve the Emperor past their normal life. Once interred within the Dreadnought, the Marine cannot leave the metal womb and is destined for a life of endless battle until destroyed. Some are so ancient their memories may extend back to the founding of their chapter and its earliest history.
For this reason they are revered not just as powerful warriors but also as ageless forebears and living embodiments of battles fought long ago. If a dreadnought is destroyed, the Space Marines will fight to retrieve the armoured shell so that the occupant can be returned to the chapter’s mausoleum for his long-deserved final rest.
