Wednesday, April 19, 2017

Narrative - Countdown to Reckoning.

“Throne damn it!” Bastonne Sol swore, yanking his hand away from a faulty wire and sucking his left thumb, part of the one organic limb he had left, and the electrocuted digit throbbed with a sharp jolt of pain. He glanced into the corner of his eye, the ever-present noospheric display overlaying his vision ticking up one number, verbal sin-counter in the upper corner keeping track of his every minor heresy. 

He glowered, turning his attention back to his work, rerouting auxiliary power from the main console through the power plant in one of his servitor charges. The main console lights flickered from red to green and he smiled, “By the Emperor’s grace…” he trailed off, flipping several switches. The sin-counter redacted a number, assuaged by the utterance. Down to 139…and the day’s only half over. Sol wondered why he’d bothered to install that thing in the first place…back when he was younger and less cynical, maybe. 

The Emperor’s grace indeed. He spat onto the floor grating, gritting his teeth. It had been two hundred and fifty-six rotations since arriving on the accursed hellscape that was Armageddon. The once-proud hive world had seen better days, and Bastonne Sol was not feeling particularly blessed by his assignment here. 

“Two hundred and fifty-seven days…” He growled to nobody in particular. He had been assigned to Godhead Aquila without warning, reassigned from a research mission in the Ghoul Stars, far from Armageddon and even farther from the legio’s forgeworld of Voss Prime - neither Sol’s native forgeworld nor one he frequented. His assignment had felt rushed, desperate even, the Mechanicum Synod that had ordered it did so with little fanfare or even the auspicious, holy writ commonplace to the Adeptus Mechanicus. 

Now, the Tech-Priest was the adjunct replacement aboard a Titan he didn’t know, on a planet he loathed, serving alongside a Titan Legion he’d only heard of by reputation: Legio Ivigilatum, the Emperor’s Guard. Everyone and their mum believes themselves to be the Emperor’s so and so these days….his shields or his swords or his scythes or his wardens or his bloody watchdogs. He half-heartedly wished the Imperium would wise up and worship the omnissiah with that same singleminded fervor, but logic and experience had taught him that dim-witted commoners believed in one god at a time, there was never enough room for more. The tech-priest grimaced again, then relaxed as he realized he’d said none of that out loud, the sin-counter remained stationary, only picking up on verbal cues. 

Sol’s thoughts were disrupted as a heavy thud and the bang of metal echoed through the engine chamber, the Titan swaying precariously. Not the usual rolling motion that came with the titanic god-machine’s footsteps - the tech-priest had long since upgraded his augmetic legs with gyro-stabilization. No, this was unmistakably the impact of a high caliber shell on the superstructure. His noosphere overlay flashed up a warning in red: 

 Estimated 180mm Tungsten Penetrator Shell, demolisher cannon equivalent. Numerous imperfections, xenos category- Ork. No internal damage. Void shield down, armor intact. 

Godhead Aquila rocked, no doubt turning towards the aggressor. Bastonne Sol placed a hand on a nearby support strut, his mechanical hand, ingrained sensorium nodes and data-feeds reporting back to him every imperfection, every weld and rivet of the cold-forged metal read to him in calming, binary psalm-code, the very scripture of the machine, holy and sacred. “By the Emperor’s grace…
He inhaled deeply, auto-senses sampling the tang of chordite, the ozone of frayed wiring, the acrid salt-waft of his own sweat from his few remaining organic parts “…and the Omnissiah’s will.” 


The sin counter tallied down again. Outside, the reverberating staccato of small-arms impacting on the hull picked up pace. 

Monday, April 17, 2017

The First Miniatures


There they are. The first miniatures of the crew: Princeps Absalom Kite and the first two Moderatii (roles and names pending). Forgeworld models are always gorgeously detailed, though it looks like these three will need some cleaning before they’re ready for the table.

Obviously for Inq28 and Shadow War Armageddon, stock models are never good enough! I’ll be giving each of these a personal touch, adding character and detail to make them truly unique members of my planned warband.

Noe for Inq28 these characters are individualized and equipped a bit more freely. For Shadow War Armageddon however, I suppose I’ll be using the Astra Militarum list - the princeps representing a veteran sergeant and the moderatii representing various ranks of guardsmen. That way I can add in other combatants and specialists including a techpriest representing Bastonne Sol, the adept in the engine room of Godhead Aquila.

More updates to come as we make progress here. However, I’m in the process of moving so my bits box and equipment is packed for a moment - should be back online and updating more frequently in a couple weeks, so stay tuned!.

Wednesday, April 12, 2017

The Project

So what is Godhead Aquila, exactly? Godhead Aquila is a passion project born of nearly 20 years of love for Warhammer 40,000.

My name is Sam Nolton, I’m a game designer, hobbyist, gamer and writer. Despite over 30 rejected applications to Games Workshop, I still hope to work for the company some day, translating my love of the world they’ve created into a career in writing or design - but until that day comes, I will still embrace my passion for the 41st millennium in the ways that speak to me most.

As-Yet Unnamed Knight-Seneschal who will
 be joining the crew of Godhead Aquila in their journey.
This blog, named for the eponymous Warlord-Class Titan mentioned in the past two posts, will be chronicling the journey from end to beginning (yes, you heard that right) of the crew behind the god-machine, starting with an Inq28 warband (or a kill team for the upcoming Shadow War: Armageddon game) after their titan is felled during the 3rd War for Armageddon. Made up of the surviving crewmen including Princeps Absalom Kite, Tech-Priest Bastonne Sol, and the Moderatii crewmen, as well as allied men and women in service of the Emperor, this ragtag group is nonetheless determined to complete their holy mission.

Further on down the line, sometime later this year, I will be exploring the Titan Legio associated - the Legio Invigilata or “Emperor’s Guard” - first for the upcoming game Adeptus Titanicus and later as a full 40k-scale Titan battlegroup.

Occasionally one-off projects like this mutant overlord may make it onto this blog
As the story grows and expands, and the characters are explored, I will show my progress on this blog with conversions, paint schemes, and character profiles. This will also be supplemented with narrative snippets - short stories and the like to explore the narrative from the Godhead Aquila’s forging to its eventual fall on Armageddon.

Every now and again I’ll also be displaying other side-projects and sharing my thoughts on the hobby, painting, and converting miniatures.