Chiron Heavy Dreadnought



Brotherhood of demigods though they may be, even the ever faithful Custodians are not immortal. The majority of their fallen are honoured by their brethren in the hallowed chambers beneath the Imperial Palace, but, provided their brains are not destroyed, the most storied lions of the Emperor's will may find themselves bound to this baroque mausoleum cum weapons platform. Once within this sagittarian chassis, the shock of a death delayed and the whispers of a machine more alive than its occupant are not the only things that await the worthy transhuman. Guns this implacable must be mated with an eye and mind that can discern as far afield as the cannons can shoot. Even with the sensory suite and cybernetic neural pathways available to the host, only a Custodes is capable of operating this vaunted walker and that is hardly a guarantee of mental safety considering the extended operations the Lord Guilliman wages in the post Indomitus period. That being said, Chiron operators come to relish their time awake, due both to the commanding view afforded them and the paradoxical "fugue/focus" state they claim to experience, feeling as though the Emperor himself is acting through them.



Standard armament, if it can be called that, for the Chiron consists of a Sarnian Autocannon and a Superheavy Praesidium Shield. The shield's lower edge can collapse from the sides towards the centre, like a handheld fan, to form a single, deadly point should the Chiron need to engage its foes in close combat. Otherwise, the enlarged field generators and supremely tough alloys in the shield have been known to save their users from Chaos Reaver Titans, much to the worry of their heretical pilots. For what comes next is a metallic blizzard of long range, precise, armour piercing kinetic penetrators loaded with heliothermic cores. As with Lastrum Bolt Cannon shells, these cores detonate inside the target, reaching solar temperatures and incinerating the enemy so thoroughly that Vulkan himself would be proud.



Some within the Imperial Court consider the four legs of this juggernaut an unbecoming defilement of the sacred human form. But the inhabitants of ancient Terra were not so short sighted. Creatures of similar form, named centaurs, were ferriers of knowledge and teachers of peerless wisdom in the myths of old. More to the point, they rained destruction on their foes while escaping their punishment. Though no Custodian is afraid to suffer for the Emperor's work, it is a lesson well heeded by these suprisingly graceful warframes. Hundreds of servo motors and thousands of artifical muscles can turn a plod into a trot into a full on gallop. And it works not only in escaping and fighting a retreat, but in charging at (and through) masses of infantry and light vehicles or bringing the aforementioned shieldspear into a titanic beast's soft point.



Next time you witness these dread walkers on the battlefield, be thankful that you hold true to the Emperor and let free an "Ave Imperator!" from your chest. For that day will truely be a golden day.



(Just something I put together; obviously it's your creation, so pay attention to none of this if you like.)