Skills7

BATTLE-SERVITOR PROTOCOLS

The construct that keeps fighting through its wounds. This skill may be taken only by a Construct fighter. Such a fighter ignores the penalty of its first Flesh Wound of the battle, and the first time it is taken down it does not test for going Out of Action — it holds its ground until a priest can reach it. The protocols carry it through that first collapse alone; a second take-down is resolved as normal. It is the creed of the Cult made mechanical: the wall does not stay broken while a single priest still walks the line.

Arc Discharge: This fighter turns the maniple's electrical weapons against the enemy's heaviest engines. Friendly fighters within 6" who are armed with arc, taser, or electroleech weapons may re-roll a failed Wound roll against Brutes, Constructs, walkers, and vehicles. It is anti-armour worked the Mechanicus way — overloading a machine's spirit rather than punching through its plate.

Bionic Resilience: So much of this fighter has been replaced with steel that death struggles to find purchase. When it would go Out of Action, or when it rolls on the Lasting Injury table, that roll may be re-rolled once. The much-rebuilt cyborg refuses the scrapheap, dragging itself back from wounds that would end a lesser body. The second result stands, for good or ill.

Canticle Adept: This Tech-Priest has learned to lead the liturgy in its own right. At the start of a round it may declare the gang's Canticle of the Omnissiah, exactly as the Dominus does. The Dominus sings innately; this training extends the Voice to an Enginseer or Manipulus, so that when the Dominus is slain the liturgy does not fall silent with him. As long as one fighter with the Voice still stands, the maniple fights under a Canticle.

Cult Conditioning: The machine-soul is dampened against fear, doubt drilled out and replaced with cold liturgy. When this fighter fails a Nerve test or a Cool check, it may re-roll that test. Where others waver, the conditioned servant of the Omnissiah simply carries on with its task.

Galvanic Fusillade: Standing firm, this fighter pours out a disciplined volley. When it does not move in its activation and fires a galvanic, radium, arc, or phosphor weapon, that weapon gains one extra shot, as though its Rapid Fire value were raised by one. The Mechanicus way of shooting is not to advance but to plant the feet and let machine-precise fire do the killing.

Master of the Machine: This Tech-Priest is a peerless mechanic, its Rites practised to reflex. Its Rite of Repair reaches out to 2" rather than requiring the priest to stand adjacent, and it may re-roll a failed repair. Once per round its Rite is worked so swiftly that it costs only a Simple action, leaving the priest free to act again. In a construct-heavy maniple such a priest keeps the whole wall standing, welding wounds shut faster than the enemy can open them.