Mantra Ghost Gear

As part of the legion's newfound method of war-fighting changed along with their Primarch, so to did their equipment, evolving into the newfound avenues that left enemies blind to the executioners axe dangling above their necks. Allowing marines to effect not only the physical battlefield the Mantra Ghost Gear allowed them to turn the every wavelength of light and even the electromagnetic spectrum to their advantage.

Though potent in it's ability to infiltrate and wreak havoc on the electronic systems an enemy may use -at least in the case of human-made technology- there is a certain level of guilt that the Mantra Ghost's users feel when using it. As they have been taught the ways of their Primogenitor, they have come to understand and work with machines similar to the ones they are particularly designed to infiltrate and sabotage. While this guilt weighs upon them it does not stop them from carrying out their duties. It is tradition however, that after a battle is done the marines are usually found deep in meditation with their own machines or effecting some measure of repair on any technology nearby in a perceived act of penance.

## **Design**

The Legion's morals on machinery aside, the pack has shrunk larger arrays into a single, marine-sized unit, able to be easily manoeuvred under the cover of stealth. The Mantra Ghost Gear has managed to pack a host of complex machinery into a single backpack roughly the same size as those used by Devastator marines to house ammunition. Doubling as the standard power source for the armour itself, the reactor within is used to feed the esoteric cogitators with more than enough power to let them do their invisible work.

While the exact specifications of the pack have only been noted to Legionary command staff and allied Mechanicus, there are a number of features that can be assumed thanks to the inherent design and post-battle reports from allied Imperial Army and Naval units.

Within the backpack itself seem to be several heavy-duty cogitator arrays, what their specific purposes or manufacture are is unknown but they have been used to devastating effect. Mantra Ghost units feeding back comprehensive enemy intelligence, enemy machines and defences being blinded, forced to destroy themselves or worse, turned on their owners as the shadow of a Monastic Ascendants squad moves through the area.

Adding to the exotic and dubious nature of the device is the baleful eye mounted on top of the backpack. It can be seen aggressively searching the battlefield with seeming autonomy from it's user. Through multiple augur arrays for both visual and electromagnetic detection the device feeds entire libraries of information back to their user through a set of mounted sights that fit over the normal astartes helm. With an unerring accuracy enemy communications, heat signatures and even the magnetic signatures of tank columns can be parsed and fed back into the Imperial network, though it is not entirely passive in it's function. Part of the function of the eye appears to be an offensive laser weapon from eye-witness reports. Auxiliary forces stating enemy augurs were blinded by a 'near invisible thread of light', allowing them to advance unmolested, their arrays eyes blinded to the approach.

As a defensive measure a set of several tubes are mounted to the side. Able to fire off their contents into the air, a mixture of reflective particulate and augur beacons are used to spoof any guided attacks against the unit or allies nearby.

The last and most curious element of the whole design is a set of several vents on the underside. These spew out trickle of super-cooled air that soon becomes a small mist that tends to gather at a marine's feet. Though the specific purpose remains unknown the eerie miasma lends a ghost-like nature to the marines, specifically when combined with the cameleloine cloak normally worn by those in the VIIth Legion. This has led to those allied forces sometimes referring to them as augur ghosts, even jesting that they like to keep tabs on mortal forces through their augur arrays when a guardsman isn't looking.