With that in mind, I decided to redo them altogether, and I decided to go with red. I mean, all Skitarii are red. They look good in red. They are meant to be red. No, seriously. Anyway, I decided to give them another spin, and initially I used Blood Angels Red - Contrast Paints - to color them. To my utmost horror, the Contrast Paint was too watery, much like Layer paints, and...they didn't work out too well. I learned that you can only use Contrast paints if you sprayed your models with the Contrast undercoat paint thing instead of the usual Abaddon Black spray paint. Thanks to that, I couldn't use Blood Angels Red. Oh, well. At least Mephiston Red worked well on them, and I used Mephiston Red Citadel base paint instead. So now they look much better. I basically painted all their robes, and because I have a bunch of Skitarii Rangers, I also painted their hoods red, to give them that good old Skitarii appearance. I really dig it! I also tried to paint their eye lenses red, but when I painted Runefang Steel over the Skitarii Vanguard's helmets and the Secutarii Hoplites' helmets, I inadvertently painted over the glowing red eyelenses. Whoops. Oh, well. They still look good, or so I hope. Yeah, I also painted the Secutarii Hoplites' robes red as well, to give them all a consistent color scheme and pattern. They look so much better and vibrant, as opposed to the boring and plain black and gold scheme from before. Even the Runefang Steel paint on the helmets gives them a nicer impression. Yay!
I also painted the robots. I can't say I like my kitbashed Kastelan robots. They still look pretty weird, probably because I combined them with Ambots. So they have a weird head. Well, they still work, and I kept them as they are, even though I'm not sure if they actually look that good. Maybe I need to give them more stuff, but I'm not sure what. Their heads look way too big for their bodies. Ugh. The Castellax battle-automata fared a lot better, and even though I didn't add a lot of red, I think they will work. I'll probably get more Castellax battle-automata in future, though it really depends on whether they plan on giving the Mechanicum units 40K rules. My Thanatar siege-automata is still sitting in my shelf doing absolute nothing, along with my Vultarax strato-automata. If they get rules, I'll get more of them, but right now it's like a waste of money. Oh well.
I also painted the Tech-priest Dominus's robes red, to make him the overall commander. Joining him in red is the Tech-priest Enginseer and the Cybernetica datasmith. I really hope, if they redo the Adeptus Mechanicus codex, they'll divide it like the Drukhari codex into the respective arms of the Adeptus Mechanicus. So you have have the Skitarii, the Auxilia Myrmidon, the Ordo Reductor, the Legio Cybernetica, and maybe the Centurio Ordinatus. Actually, would be happy with just Skitarii, Ordo Reductor and Legio Cybernetica in the same way Horus Heresy Mechanicum had Taghmata (which is everything), Ordor Reductor and Legio Cybernetica. Three different "armies" in the same way the Drukhari has Kabals, Wyche Cults and Haemonculus Covens. But I doubt that would ever happen. That's fine too. I'll just take what I can get. Yay?
So now all my Skitarii and Adeptus Mechanicus are red! Any enemies who look at them will see red! And then get blown apart by galvanic rifles, arc rifles, plasma calivers and radium carbines! One day I'll add a Skorpius Dunerider to their forces, so that the Secutarii Hoplites can travel alongside the Cerastus Knight Lancer (who sadly lost his flank speed, so no more advancing 14"+2D6" up the table). But...not today. $75 is too steep a price for me. Ouch. And I still want the Impulsor, and I hardly play my Skitarii these days. Mostly because I have more fun playing with my Imperial Knights. Speaking of Knights, my Skitarii stand ready next to my Knights, ha ha ha ha! One day I'll field my Skitarii alongside my Knights, but for now I'm content to field a full Knight army. But they look really cool together, don't they?
Secutarii Hoplite Alpha-240-Antimon raised his head and studied the row of silent Titans that were under his charge. Motionless and stationary, the gigantic God-machines resembled nothing more than ancient statues, their banners drifting lazily in the breeze that blew through the forge world of Draconis IV.
"Boring," he complained to himself as he thumped his arc lance against the ground, throwing up clumps of Martian-red soil into the air.
<What was that, sir?> One of his subordinates, Beta-42-Querious, queried in binaric.
<Nothing. Continue patrol pattern epsilon-23,> Alpha-240-Antimon replied. Not that it would make any difference, he added to himself silently. They had been patrolling the Collegia Titan sector for years and none of them had ever seen any action.
The systems in his helm scanned the area, but registered nothing but the howling wind on his auspex. Or at least that was what he thought until he caught sight of a figure trying to stealthily weave through the titanic feet of the...Titans. As skilled as he was, coupled with his transhuman physiology, it was the intruder's power armor that gave him away.
Poor bastard should have worn the latest Phobos armor if he wanted to sneak around like a Raven Guard Marine, Alpha-240-Antimon thought, stifling a snort.
As a cautionary measure, he activated his arc lance, sending exotic energies crackling up the length of his weapon. Marching forward, while sending a binaric command to his squad to be careful, he approached the stealthily proceeding Space Marine.
"Halt!" He commanded, using his voice. Unlike most Skitarii, his human voice remained natural and free of mechanical modulation. The Mechanicus priesthood of Draconis IV featured a huge Divisio Biologis, and thus they, like the Steel Dragons Space Marine Chapter that they worked closely with, believed devoutly in the edict of "the Flesh is Strong." Thanks to that, the Skitarii of Draconis IV did not have as many augmetics as their bretrhen from other forge worlds, choosing instead to believe in the strength of their biological bodies. For what was the body, if not the ultimate expression of the Machine Incarnate? "Identify. You have ten seconds to comply."
The Space Marine turned to face him. Alpha-240-Antimon caught sight of a multi-headed serpent, a hydra, amidst a sea-blue power armor, and the weird designs on the armor that no loyal Tech-priest of the Mechanicus would ever conceive before his auspex darkened with warning signals. The Traitor Space Marine raised his boltgun and fired off a shot at his chest, but the Secutarii Hoplite Alpha raised his mag-inverter shield in reflex, which caught the mass reactive round before it detonated against the shimmering protective field. More from instinct than intention, Alpha-240-Antimon rammed his crackling arc lance into the chest of the surprised Alpha Legion Space Marine. The power armor buckled, and destructive energies flowed past the cracked ceramite and into the Legionnaire's body, electrocuting him.
For a moment, the Traitor Space Marine's transhuman physiology withsthood the tremendous amount of punishment, but Alpha-240-Antimon plucked his arc lance out before smashing it into the dented armor plate again. This time, the Alpha Legion Space Marine's two hearts melted from the sheer amount of powerful energies that clawed at his chest, and he shuddered, his body going into convulsions inside his armor.
"...whoops."
Alpha-240-Antimon removed his arc lance and watched the Alpha Legion legionnaire's corpse dance for a few moments before toppling over in a smoking heap. His auspex informed him that the Heretic Astarte was definitely dead, all life-signs flattening out.
"Good thing I killed him before his Hateful Assault came into play. Charging and striking first really has its advantages."
Alpha-240-Antimon rubbed the side of his helm, and prepared to exload a bunch of data to his supervising Tech-priest. Magos Dominus Yamaguchi, as expected, contacted him in binaric through the noosphere exactly 4.224 seconds later.
<Alpha-240-Antimon! Report!>
<I just uploaded the combat data, Magos,> Alpha-240-Antimon responded breezily as he prodded the still body of the Alpha Legion legionnaire. <I think the Alpha Legion has infiltrated our forge world. Uh, I hope you aren't Alpharius.>
<This isn't the time to make jokes!> Magos Yamaguchi snapped. <Double down on security immediately! Have your squad form a perimeter!>
<Yes, Magos.>
As Alpha-240-Antimon tried to organize his squad into defensive positions, he spotted a squad of Alpha Legion legionnaires sprinting forward, raising their boltguns and firing off potshots at them. His Secutarii Hoplites immediately raised their shields and deflected the explosive projectiles as best as they could. A few of them went down, the mass-reactive shells detonating inside their chests, or blowing open their heads, despite the pitiful protection their helmets offered. Miraculously, none of the bolts struck Alpha-240-Antimon. Most likely the Omnissiah had decided to assign the wounds to random no-name Secutarri Hoplites in the squad while keeping the Alpha alive for his higher Leadership to minimize Morale losses at the end of the turn.
"Wait!" Alpha-240-Antimon shouted as he raised a hand and waved at the Alpha Legion Space Marines. Taking a deep breath and using the speakers in his helm to amplify his voice as loudly as possible, he yelled, "HAIL HYDRA!"
The Alpha Legion Space Marines stopped in astonishment and stared at him. One of them raised his hand to salute him.
At that moment, Alpha-240-Antimon sent a binaric command to his forces. <Hit them now! With everything you have!>
The ten Secutarii Hoplites discharged their arc lances in unison, using the noosphere and combat data to calculate the trajectories of their shots to inflict maximum damage on their targets. The devastating bolts of energies arced toward the five Alpha Legion Space Marines, taking them by surprise and frying them inside their power armor. Three of them went down immediately, their flesh cooking and boiling inside ceramite. The other two survived, but were incapacitated, writhing and convulsing on the ground. A few of the surviving Secutarii Hoplites stepped forward to finish the debilitated Space Marines off with pokes and prods of their volatile arc lances, the genhanced supersoldiers groaning before they expired like cattle.
<Hail Hydra? What does that mean, sir?> Garmon-22-Trealus asked, confused as he reviewed the combat data, particularly puzzling over why the Alpha Legion Space Marines paused to salute him when he shouted that.
<Nothing you need to worry, soldier,> Alpha-240-Antimon assured him, his smile unseen inside his helm. <Just a...pop culture reference.>
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