Editing Obstinate Marines (section)

===Big Obduratus===

+++ Extracted from the memoirs of Inquisitor Rogericus Smithius +++

While the Astartes Partinax’s restlessness makes them phenomenal soldiers, it also made it incredibly difficult to talk to any of them. Even if I managed to find one who didn’t speak in monosyllables, they would stop listening after just a few sentences and then march off to find something to do. It was incredibly frustrating, three weeks in that grey fortress with no sign of the reported Heretics known as “The Still”, and I could rarely get an answer out of one of the marines before they wandered off. It was enough to drive anyone mad.

And so I found myself in the company of the Adeptus Mechanicus. A bunch of lunatics, but at least they could hold up a decent conversation. I spent most of my spare time with a higher ranking member of the cult, Dastun. He oversaw the maintenance of the Partinax’s Dreadnoughts and vehicles, known among the members and workers of the chapter as ‘Juggernauts’. They differed greatly from the standard Dreadnought design due to the Partinax’s peculiar habit of constantly upgrading their armor, they looked more like oversized versions of their living brethren, the only major differences being heavier weapons, and their usual power feet being replaced by treads. Many of them were walking slowly in place on treadmills, even as the tech-priests atattched more and more armor.

There was one in particular that caught my eye. It towered clear over everything else in the room, instead of an upscaled version of the standard Partinax helmet, it had what appeared to be a human face, set with a blank expression. But what really caught my eye were its arms, I had never seen anything like it, the forearms were massive, and there were two cylinders about half as long as its forearms jutting straight out from its elbows. “Excuse me,” I said as I tapped Dastun on the shoulder, “who is in that massive Dreadnought over there?” 

He looked up from his data-slate “We just call him Big Obduratius, that’s what everyone here has always called him. Not even the other Dreadnoughts remember a time when he wasn’t here, even the oldest ones just say that he’s always been here and always be called Big Obduratius. It doesn’t help that he’s not very talkative.”

He shrugged, “He only says the same handful of phrases. He wakes up, smashes some enemies of the Omnimessiah, then goes back to sleep.”

“What about his arms? I’ve never seen power fists like those before.”

Dastun shrugged again, “It’s because they aren’t power fists. They work more like a thunder hammer really, but it seems that he can discharge them at will to send out a blast of the same type of energy, it loses power pretty quickly over distance though. We just call them Thunder Fists.”

We had been walking toward it while we talked and now stood right at its feet. If anything, it was even more imposing from this viewpoint. Hundreds of tons of gleaming ceramite and adamantium towered over the both of us. “So you really don’t know who this Obiduatius was, huh?”

He turned back to his data slate while he talked, “Not a clue, someone runs the name by the Administratum every once in a while, they don’t have any record of him as anything other than a Dreadnought, and even that only goes back to when they noticed that the Astartes Partinax were still around. Most of the Dreadnoughts here are older than that. He could be from before the Horus Heresy for all we know.”

Just then, an ear-splittingly loud voice boomed and echoed around the room, “SHOWTIME!”

Big Obduratius just woke up. 

A nearby tech-priest pulled a lever, and the back of the Leviathan (one of many that made up the amalgam of titans, troop transports, and other things that made up the mobile fortress) opened up to allow the towering Dreadnought to walk out. For whatever reason, this one in particular didn’t have treads, just large feet. I learned later that they had a tendency to slide backwards when its Thunder Fists were activated, not so good when there was an army behind it, or if you’re trying to hold back a particularly large orc.

I wanted to see this thing in action, and an excuse to get away from the drab corridors of the “The Pertinacious”, so I used my Inquisitorial authority to commandeer a nearby Land Speeder, ignoring Dastun’s warnings about following it to the front lines. Despite the fact that it was merely walking, the sheer length of its strides made it difficult to keep up with. Luckily, the march of the Partinax and the speeders anti-grav engines meant I didn’t need to worry about crashing into anything besides the occasional pile of Ork corpses, which would soon be cleaned up as the fortress advanced.

It wasn’t long before we saw the ranks of the Partinax, carving their way through the encroaching horde of Orks like a lasbolt through butter. Carefully placed shots, fists, and boots took out the biggest threats in the crowd first. It was obvious that they were headed towards the Ork’s Warboss, who was spraying a ceaseless hail of heavy bolter fire down from the hilltop, luckily with the usual Orkish lack of accuracy. The greenskin in question was large, even for a Warboss. It was roughly the same height as Big Obduratius himself.

The Dreadnought turned its blank gaze to its living Battle Brothers. The few who weren’t currently occupied with the Orks simply pointed to the Warboss. Obduratius faced forward, and to my surprise began to run. It cleared the distance at a blazing speed, simply stepping on any Orks unfortunate enough to be in his path. As he approached the Warboss, he pulled his right arm back, the cylinder in its elbow extended outwards. The Warboss turned his fire on the Dreadnought, but the curtain of Bolter shells didn’t even slow his approach. Even above the din of the battle, you could hear his booming voice.

“CAST IN THE NAME OF THE EMPEROR,”

Obiduatius’ punch landed cleanly in the middle of the Warboss’ stomach, lifting it off the ground on top of the Dreadnought’s fist.

“YE GUILTY.”

The cylinder rammed back into Obduratius’ forearm, and the Warboss’ entire torso was vaporized in an instant. A look of shock passed over its face for an instant before its two halves hit the ground out of view.