Agares Tretiak

First, the Ordo's naval assets work on a scale that sometimes overwhelms what a simple turret count would indicate alone, much less munition stores. Lasers don't require ammunition. And smaller caliber railguns don't require expensive munitions, either. In many cases, a fleet with a single mining support ship can find an asteroid belt, and replenish the slugs used in an engagement from minerals taken through procurement in a star system. This is more effective than lugging around vulnerable cargo ships or having vast stores of expensive and less effective munitions (which, I might add, could destroy the ship if hit or sabotaged) A class III turret can use shells up to 3 meters in diameter for a solid projectile weapon like you describe. Alternatively, it's difficult to set a bomb in your railgun slug storage, and expect it'll destroy the ship form the inside... and a critical hit to that magazine won't cook off the slugs, either. The distances the ships fight at require some degree of accuracy, as well, as most fleets will not close distance until they feel they've done enough damage to risk boarding actions and broadsides. Secondly, the munitions for a space cannon like you suggest, would be more expensive than your standard Terra artillery shell for a wide range of reasons. Simply saturating larger targets with heavy fire is generally not enough. The steps up in scale for each class of weapon, is exponential compared to the previous step. So a Class I is almost 200 times more powerful than a Class II, and in comparison, it is more economical in most cases to utilize a single Class I turret, over 200 Class II turrets. The most expensive ammo the Ordo uses, aside from some rather exotic test weapons, are mass driver munitions, which are validated by the effects they have on the target vessel, in spite of all their setbacks. Finally, larger ships can absorb large amounts of "pecking" or constant fire from lower level weapon systems. The shields do not wear down under mthose conditions, because when you reach the scale of a battleship, the ships are trying to cause instantaneous, minor burnouts in the opposing vessels shield systems. For an analogy, think of using rocks of different sizes, trying to splash water out of a pool. You can throw lots of pebbles in there, and try to splash the water out. You might splash significant amounts, with enough small rocks, but the amounts you splash will more than likely be replaced by the pool's water pumps before causing a noticeable drop in the water level. It'll be a slow process, unless you can find a dump truck and pour in a huge amount of pebbles. Now, imagine dropping more, larger rocks. You displace more water, faster. THe water pumps are going to have less time to refill the pool before you cause the next large splash with the next rock. This means you can cause noticeable drops in the water level, more quickly. Now imagine, you're dropping boulders in. Now you're overwhelming the water pump's ability to replenish the pool at the same rate that you're removing the water. Battleships require boulder sized splashes, so that the shields are incapable of regenerating the lost protective attributes the provide. Granted, you could field a ton of frigates against a single battleship, and after a while, the battleships shields will collapse. But it's a long while. It's a pretty big pool. And all that time, that battleship is firing boulders at your much smaller pools. At longer range. And more accurately. To continue to the water analogy, ion weapons, rather than trying to remove water from the pool, are trying to flood the pool over it's container, so that the water will then short out the pumps.

:D

Not quite light speeds, no. But it'd do some very serious damage. And you need to consider that a battleship tends ot have huge shield systems. Magnus Dreadnaughts are about 15 kilometers long, mind you. Tiri stated it'd disrupt and displace plate tectonics. Not exactly a planet killer, per se, but definitely a doomsday weapon capable of one-shotting a continent. A note about Ordo super-weapon systems. The Ordo does not possess straight up planet killers. It has means to depopulate planets in short order and even kill all life, but to outright annhilate a single planet requires massive scales of energy. The Ordo could theoretically deploy weapons on that scale, but it so far has not. The closest it has is the Praetorian Magnus Dreadnaught with its Class Null Alpha Plasma weapon, which has been theorized to be capable of destabilizing a star's fusion processes. All large scale weapons (Class Null Alpha) are rarely utilized and when they are, with extreme care. The expenditure, to fire one of those rail guns, for example, excedes the cost of most small invasions, for instance, when one takes into account the cost of logistics surrounding loading, firing, crewing, maintaining, powering, and then repairing the weapon. This doesn't include transportation costs, or the costs of what repairs would need to be made on either planetary surfaces, or any ships caught in the resultant shockwave when the round hit a targeted vessel. The plasma weapon is even more expensive to use. Rather, they are used when facing enemy armadas, or as a last resort when handling exceedingly risky or dangerous situations. There's only a handful of these Dreadnaughts in Navis, and few species have weapons to match them in scale and defensive ability, though offensive weapons used by some enemies could be compared to the destructive potential of a Magnus-Dreadnaught. The other (non-magnus) Dreadnaughts serve generally as mobile logistical platforms, producing, gathering, anf storing large amounts of war materials, and can produce replacement ships up to the 4th Rate, though not at the same rate of a full on space-dock or forge. Magnus-Dreadnaughts have reduced production capabilities, but greater outright offensive ability, and sit in the center of the largest Ordo fleets, usually in orbit over key strategic assets. For instance, there is a single Magnus-Dreadnaught fleet that defends the Throne World.

I have that. Solid projectiles. They're there. There's a few issues with a standard artillery shell. One, they require oxygenated atmosphere's to operate properly. Two, they can only reach a certain velocity, at which point, they cannot travel any faster. This makes them more susceptible to gravitational forces which will slightly alter their trajectory. While the former can be salvaged by space techno-magic, the latter has the issue of not being able to penetrate most shields. The advantage is that, like missiles and other guided munitions, the warheads could be changed out, which can cause varying types of damage, should a defensive shield go down. The Ordo makes more use of railguns, which while technically solid projectiles, utilize solid slugs of tungsten or depleted uranium and fire them at two-thirds the speed of light. This can cause significant damage to shields and of course, the physical hull of a vessel. The largest size slug utilized is a 55 meter wide, by 120 m long slug of solid tungsten, which is mounted on several Magnus-Dreadnaughts, and utilized in planetary defense installations to knock out battleships in a single shot. On ship shielding systems: Ordo vessels and ships that utilize Ordo technology, are renowned for slapping on layers of armor plating and overlapping shield projectors. This is part of the reason Ordo ships are so large, in order to incorporate oversized power generators to pump energy into the shield systems ordo ships have. As a result, most Ordo vessels are massively protected, but this comes at the cost of not being particularly stealthy. In fact, the level of emissions from a single battleship can be registered behind an approximately Earth sized planetary body without too much difficulty. Planets under invasion from the Ordo notice that their skies are filled with brilliant auroras, the result of the shield emission signatures interacting with a planet's electromagnetic field, and large Ordo fleets can alter tidal patterns and create freak storms if they are too close to a planet. For all you science geeks, I'm not clear yet on the operating principles of Ordo's shields, but they seem to cover a wide range of defensive abilities, and thus, I'll venture to say that they are very complex and somewhat fragile systems. Shields operate to defend from physical and non-physical attacks, and also will reinforce the local hull. They are not projected far from the hull of the vessel, perhaps a matter of somewhere around 3-5 meters, which is why a super-dense mass round can damage a hull without ever actually touching the shields. Shield systems are susceptible especially to overloads from either extended attack on the shield, or an "ion" weapon that overcharges and then overloads the shield system, causing it to burn out. More recent shield systems offer reactive multi-frequency defense against modulated and beam lasers, higher safe output levels (making them more resilient), and a revolutionary breaker fuse that allows repair crews to quickly replace burnt out ones in the event of a massive overload or ion discharge. Shield emissions from naval vessels are, as stated, immense, and exposure to an active shield system, unprotected will literally cook a person within a few milliseconds

Well, hence why our "mass drivers" are not some sort of particle accelerator or railgun. Our ion guns operate on a separate principal than most. Lasers, similar to startrek, but they cut through things, rather than rattle the ship a bit. Solid projectile weapons are a rarity in space, aside from rail/gauss/coil guns. Plasma weaponry is...fun. :( I'm open to interesting and novel weapon systems, though! discussion fuels my imagination! Questions and suggestions let me create new things!

WHILE HISTORICALLY ACCURATE TO SL, IT IS NOT ORDO CANON FOR ITS FICTION. :( Even so, entertaining.

I like this. Which Capitol? The Regional one? :D? There is no "Inquisition" in the Ordo, per se. But Inquisitors are special investigative aids fro the Frumentarii and AiR. In this case, the guy in question would likely be handed over to the Praetorian Guard (if it was the Imperial Throne World that was bombed) or to the AiR (if it was a regional capital). Titan is a frontline Imperial world, and serves as the primary mustering point for the Northern front. The Colonial expanse is in the south. It would take 3-4 weeks for a fleet in the Colonial expanse to make a go for Titan. :D

More information on AIs: Ordo AIs are complex creations. Even though a Lar may seem to be fairly dry and no-nonesense, a considerable amount of effort goes into it's creation. There's 5 types of specialists (in general) related to the creation of any AI system. Turing Engineer: They put in the "bounding" hardline programming that prevents an AI from going "DESTROY ALL HUMANS". Turing Engineers all must be certified by government, and undergo rigorous training and testing before they are permitted to work. Turing engineers are also a required part of any installation or ship that uses an AI, to ensure the Turing Protocols that bind the AI are kept intact. Psychoalgorithmic Programmer: They develop the mental templates that the AI will be "built" around. Psychoanalytical Intelligence Engineer: They oversee the overall development of the AI, form start to finish. They also put the finishing touches on how the AI will operate and interface with its environment. In many ways, they are as much artists as they are technicians, as each AI begins to develop in unique ways, and it takes a very creative, psychological approach to guide the budding AI into the form that it will need to fulfill its duties. Dr. Inoue Katsu is the foremost PAIE in the Imperium, equally renowned for creating the Pantheon as it now exists, as they are for imbuing their work with odd personality quirks, most notoriously Mercury, which is known for making obscure and random commentary on users queries and inputs. Most recently, Mercury asked Lord Tretiak of the Praetorian 1st Legion if he'd "like to be a Pepper too?" Virtual Neuropathologist: The VNP's specialty is to ensure that the growing AI is not infected or changed by dangerous data that might warp its development, or subvert it's Turing programing or cause abnormalities in its development. VNPs subsequently are known to be paranoid, serious, and the butt of many jokes. Artificial Morphic Neurologist: They are involved especially in the early stages of the development of an AI, after the AI's Sarcophagus is built (essentially, the inactivate adaptive quantum computer that will become the new AI), making sure the early physical neural pathways are developing properly.

I thought of phasers. I used to read those technical manuals when I was a little kid, and aI thought it made some sense. The theory is similar, but the concept is applied in a different way. The "raking" fire of a beam laser battery, depending on the scale, can be short, "scattering" shots, or slow , massive sweeps that will move over the length of a vessel. Many Ordo vessels utilize a combination of weaponry, to maximize the destructive potential they can wreak on enemy ships. The most common weapons the Ordo uses are Lasers (of both types) and railguns (and related technology).

Tiri and I have been extremely careful to avoid mentioning specifics about species in the stories. This is to avoid the question of anthro or human at all. The implication is that most of the Imperium is comprised of humans, but that there are friendly xeno species that have aligned themselves with humanity under the banner of the Imperium. One of the reasons for this is that humanity seems unusauly flexible and adaptable in comparison to other species and have drawn together separate groups under the umbrella of first the Republic, and then the Imperium. In many cases, the species they discovered or encounter are semi-stagnate, reaching a certain level of advancement (quite high, mind you) before locking into a set pace of life and existence, and do not progress beyond that point until they come into contact with humans. There is a very specific reason for this in the stories, and while I am loathe to divulge too many details before Tiri and I finish our literature on the subject, it all relates to an ancient species that crippled the advancement of the other species. Thus, on an -instinctual- level, many of these species do not seek to advance beyond a certain level. The only one who seemed more or less immune to this crippling influence were humans. As a result, social and cultural contact with humanity provides these various groups a way to overcome otherwise stagnated advancement and continued existence. There is also the implication that humanity has a more mutable genetic makeup for unspecified reasons, and cross breeding has further engrained humanity's adaptive nature into many of the species that have joined it. The ancient species may or may not be annihilated. No, they are not Mass Effect Reapers, Halo Forerunners, or anything of that nature, though they may share a surface resemblance from that description. We would urge writers not to speculate or include this information in their stories, until the canon information is released regarding them (ancient species). Currently, Keller is working on some of his own literature, regarding a race of sharky-people. I suggested he use a variance on the scientific name for the great white shark as the name of the species. I recommend similar measures for any species you wish to include in your literature, if you want it to be looked at as canon. Eventually, we'll make a list of official species under the Imperium, as well as anti-Ordo aliens (Like the Exonari, Guants, and a few others I'm working on).

Oh snap. The thingy Rykiana made on like the first page. I didn't realize I was repsonding to something on the first page. ;_;

We don't use rocks. Unless we're towing some asteroids and slingshot them at a target we don't give a shit about. I.E. a planet so hostile it'd kill us landing there, or some back-assward rocky outpost moon we don't care to waste men invading.

Currently, the canon has the Guard being more directly "Roman" with it's organization, using a legion organization. There's only 10 legions of Guard. The unit that I and the other Guardsmen are in is the 1st Legion accompanies Aryte like... 90% of the time. The 4th Legion (I think) operates the Praetorian fleet, and each Legion has various specialities. For instance, the one that "Praetorian Guardsman Bellator" serves in will specialize with TAAS units. What's a TAAS unit? You'll see! Terra is organized around regiments. Each Alpha squad was translated into a specialist regiment, wether elite infantry, support, or what have you. Alpha units are all under the command of the army group they're serving in (essentially the portion of the front they've been assigned to). The ones we know, are only a small portion of a much larger selection of elite units. There may be some very select "special forces" styled units, but many of those roles are filled by the special branches of the AiR, the Praetorian Guard, and even Curia (but not all). Elite units are not the same as special forces, as elites are frontline combat troops, where as special forces (while elite) are also used in very specific, and usually far more limited situations. Essentially, you guys kick major ass on the front lines, but are not so subtle or fine tuned for most special mission roles (like assassinations, sabotage, disrupting enemy communications/transportation, etc.). The Ordo's overall military might can measured in several billions of soldiers (all branches combined). While this may seem large, consider the amount of space the Ordo controls, and the populations its dealing with. With that in mind, very few soldiers will ever personally see or meet the Imperator, much less a large number of officers or elite units. In canon, the majority of the Ordo's current military operations are taking place in the "Northern" front, aiming to repel an unusually well organized enemy offensive, before proceeding with conquering more land in the name of the Imperator and the Senate. I will point out that army commanders tend to like to keep elite units close at hand, as they are reliable, skillful, and more flexible in difficult situations than standard units, so you would work closely with high ranking officers in the Terra general staff.

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vSkb0kDacjs Here's the lyrics: I listen to this song during combat, a lot.

The one you labled as Tiri was actually me. I still have that uniform in my inventory, somewhere.

http://forums.ordoimperialis.com/index.php?/topic/10079-histories-of-the-ordo-imperialis/ Tiri's official Time-line of the Ordo, as well as some historical analysis of the politics.

bump (Please pin this topic, as it is part of the Ordo literary canon)

I like the stone one. Can you make the letters kinda flare and glow, afterwards? White or glowey blue, if possible.

A few notes on Ordo naval weaponry: An interstellar vessel, even the smallest ship of the sixth rating, is a celestial tool of destruction. Each class of naval turret is several orders of magnitude more powerful that previous, with the most powerful weapons falling under Class Null Alpha (Special). These weapons are rarely mounted on standard warships; Rather, they require either terrestrial installations (requiring around a 1000 men to operate a single weapon) or an orbital platform or space station. Each turret class only gives a vague sense of its destructive potential, however, and as there as many types of Ordo ships, there are weapons that can be mounted on them. Here are a few of the more common types of naval turret along with simple explanations of their operating principles. - Plasma: Plasma weapons in the Imperium are very destructive, capable of melting and breaking down matter at a rapid rate. This makes any plasma weapon very useful at eating through armor plating, but not very effective against powerful shields. Due to the size and volatility of Plasma cells, the larger the weapon, the less stable it becomes. As a result, only direct feed plasma weapons (which are stationary, rather than rotating turrets) get classed higher than Class IIIc. It is extremely rare for any plasma weapon to exceed Class IIa. There is only one Class Null Alpha (Special) Plasma weapon in the Imperium, which is used to destabilize stars or destroy planets, on board the Praetorian Magnus-Dreanought 'Bellum Aeternum'. - Laser: Ordo laser technology is very advanced, but is rarely utilized on a man portable scale. Rather, the Imperium focuses this flexible weapon technology for large scale weapons and naval vessels. The Ordo uses two types of laser: Beam and Modulated. Modulated Laser: Modulated Lasers utilize a frequency modulator to punch through shield systems. It is usually fired in short bursts, let the modulator on it burns out, and this makes it less effective for cutting through armor. However, against lightly armored vessels (fighters, bombers, gunships, and the like) it makes a highly ideal weapon for point defense, as a Class IIIa Naval Modulated Laser turret can easily destroy one in a single shot. The other advantage is that a modulated laser is slightly more power efficient than a beam laser, making it ideal to place on smaller vessels, including deep-space fighters and gunships. Large scale Modulated Lasers are used to target enemy shield projectors and cripple or weaken them, to allow for heavier and more powerful anti-armor weapons to finish it off. Beam Laser: Beam lasers operate on a single stable frequency, which permits it to be fired continuously without burning out. This makes beam lasers excellent for cutting through armor and can break through a shield if its frequency is not set to repel the operating wavelength of the Beam Laser hitting it. However, most modern warships deploy multiple shield projectors which can alternate and shift their frequency fast enough to mitigate damage from a beam laser. Thus, the Ordo developed a method of "sweeping" its beam lasers across the hull of an enemy ship, trying to find shield projectors which are weaker than others. Generally, a batter of beam lasers will be set on different frequencies to allow multiple sweeps to do large amounts of damage to an enemy ships shield array. Once it breaks through the shields, large beam lasers can cut a ship in half with terrifying ease, which is why the Ordo has been researching new anti-beam laser shield systems and laser resistant armors. Beam lasers require more energy to operate than a modulated laser, which is why they are rarely mounted on turrets on anything smaller than a Fifth Rate vessel. - Railcannon: Railguns, Gauss guns,and Coil guns all operate off of the same general principles of electromagnetism, which allow a vessel to fire solid projectiles at near light speeds, creating massive kinetic damage. They are somewhat power-thirsty compared to modulated lasers, but can create substantial damage to both armor and shield systems, and thus are widely used. - Solid Projectile: Solid Projectile weapons in space are rare and somewhat antiquated, but some recent weapons of this type allow a surprising diversity in warhead types. A solid projectile weapon is usually fairly small, due to the logistical problems of storing large quantities and types of the larger solid projectile warheads (and their volatility). - Mass driver: Mass drivers are deceptive by name. Rather than launching a standard projectile, they launch concentrated spheres of dense null-state matter, relying on the mass of the projectile to deal damage. When the weapon is fired, the matter becomes increasingly dense until it destabilizes and dissipates. The effect is to completely by-pass all shield countermeasures and directly affect the hull integrity of the target. Mass drivers require vast amounts of energy to operate and fire, and are very fragile compared to most other weapon types. They also have extremely short ranges. These facts restrict mass drivers to Third Rate ships and larger, as only they can approach another large ship and hope to be able to fire their weapons before suffering damage. Mass drivers are somewhat rare and arcane weapons for all these reasons. - Ion: Ion weapons are a type of energy weapon that is designed specifically to overload shield arrays on enemy ships. When they achieve this, they do relatively little damage to the target vessels armor, but leave it vulnerable to other weapons. Ion weapons fire in silver colored beams that look extremely 'fuzzy' to most observers. Ion weapons are notoriously unreliable, since recent technology has reduced their effectiveness on some shield systems. -

Hugo Boss, when I can afford it.

The only "best" division is the Ordo Imperialis, comrades. Anything less than that is insufficient.

Altus, I will beat you to death. I will then experiment with how to dispose a body.

You realize how much they edit, cut, and stage these shows? A whole Ffffing lot. They'll lead people with questions, cut in shots of when people are told there's a delay in shooting so that they look exasperated, bored, or angry when they're not, deprive the participants of proper sleep, or simply purposely try to play them off against each other. So...keep in mind that "Reality" television is as manufactured as any other form of television.

HELLO, BROTHER ABRAMS. Zerowinged, Welcome to WH40k. You can have lots of overlap in names, and not even remotely begin to infringe on other fluff things that involve similar names. You missed the bit about the Imperial Fists legion also being called the Emperor's Praetorian Guard, for their role in renovating the defenses of Terra under the direction of Rogal Dorn. The Literal Praetorian Guard of the Emperor, are the Adeptus Custodes, however.

Eh...the Ultramarines use the standard "Brother-Thingy" format. Mostly because their founder, the Primarch Robute Guilliman was the one who wrote the Codex Astartes and they follow it nearly religiously. Which is why some members of other, less Codex inclined chapters (Space Wolves) will jokingly call Ultramarines "starch-arsed goody-goodies" If I don't get to be Lord Praefectus, I want to be the Lord Epistolary (Chief Librarian) or the Lord Reclusiarch. ;__;