Castellax-Σ Battle Automata

The ***Castellax*-class Battle-Automata** is the most common pattern of the widespread *Castellan*-type Battle-Automata in service to the Hephaestian *Legio Cybernetica* and serves as a general robotic battle unit developed during the Great Crusade from its ancient forebear.

Modified from the ancient classic pattern, the Castellax-Σ primary role is battlefield heavy support of integrated Cataphract-β Battle Automata the *Castellax-Σ* Battle-Automata is a hulking humanoid machine with a notoriously aggressive and responsive Machine Spirit, and an enviable reputation on the battlefield. The *Castellax-Σ*, employed in units of one to five robots by the *Legio Cybernetica*, has a standard configuration of a shoulder mounted Mauler Bolt Cannon, a Siege Wrecker, and an arm mounted Phosphor Blaster.

## History

The most common Castellan-type Robot in service with the Hephaestian Mechanicum is not the Kastellan-class of many more doctrinally bound forges, but the product of dark and mysterious science. Developed from its ancient forebears, it was primarily intended for siege work and shock assaults. The Castellax Battle-Automata is a hulking humanoid machine thrice the height of a man, with a notoriously aggressive and responsive Machine Spirit and an enviable reputation on the battlefield.
Its armoured endoskeleton is proof against small-arms fire and highly resistant to damage thanks to its durable design and the presence of the same Atomantic Shielding technology that features on the Legiones Astartes Contemptor Pattern Dreadnought. The Castellax-Σ, employed in large numbers by the Hephaestian Legio Cybernetica, has a standard weapons configuration of Phosphor Cannon, Siege Wrecker, and Mauler Bolt Cannon armament, and is able to maintain a punishing barrage of firepower as it advances. Rarer configurations, however, included Battle-Automata equipped with Cognis-flamer weapons or the arcane and powerful Darkfire Heavy Photon Thruster Cannon.

During the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy, many Imperial Army cohorts and Legiones Astartes units went to war accompanied by attached Cybernetica maniples. Some were bonded by compacts forged in the crucibles of war, and the Battle-Automata even bore the same colours and heraldry as the auxiliaries or Space Marine Legions themselves. To this current day, this is no longer the case, and only the select few allies of local forges can produce such automata to wage their wars.

The Castellax-class was a mainstay both of the Legio Cybernetica and the elite defensive formations of many Forge Worlds, who relied on its formidable power for their protection. Many within the Mechanicus as it stands fear the power of the Beastia Anima contained within the war-robots of old, but it is the acumen of the distant Hephaestian Forge which maintains the innumerable secrets of the Dark Age that go into its construction, and fear not its power.

## Armament

Mauler Bolt Cannon - The Mechanicum utilized a variety of Bolter weaponry which, while operating on similar principles to the standardised weapons of the Legiones Astartes, were often more sophisticated and difficult to maintain. Such weapons include the Mauler Pattern Bolt Cannon, a fearsomely-baroque and bulky automatic cannon using substantially larger and denser shells than a standard Heavy Bolter.

Heavy Phosphor Canon - Commonly used throughout the Adeptus Mechanicus in wake of the destruction of the Phosphex Template, this gun's tracer rounds and burning onslaught to lay waste to scores of foes.

Siege Wrecker - This is a general term for a specialised form of massive close combat weapon intended for Legiones Astartes Dreadnoughts and Mechanicum Battle-Automata. Wreckers are designed to enable these heavy assault units to smash through fortifications and easily crush armoured barricades and defences in siege warfare. The most common form of this weapon is a hydraulic ram or massive disruption field-augmented hammer, although specialised forms of heavy claw or drill systems are also used.

Atomantic Shielding - Certain Battle-Automata featured particularly powerful Atomantic Reactor cores designed to energize defensive field generators built into the Battle-Automata's exterior armour plating, as well as power its combat systems.