As sometimes happens when I'm bored, I rifled through my 40k library for some light reading. This time I settled for Nightbringer, the first Ultramarines novel. It's about a guy called Uriel, who, like most Space Marine characters, is something of a Mary Sue, as he leads the brave and the bold trying to save a planet called Pavonis from a dastardly conspiracy. A pretty unremarkable read overall: not so much horrible as simply mediocre, which is par the course for the Black Library.
In VS debate terms, Nightbringer is best known for a certain quote about starships able to "crack continents" with their weapons. This claim will be familiar to most Spacebattles lurkers, and it may be Oragahn has already addressed it here. However, there are other passages in the book which will also be of interest to those looking for examples on how to interpret 40k firepower claims.
We'll highlight the starship firepower aspect only, here. The book does have some mildly interesting bits on ground combat, as well, but let's save those for another time.
* * *
First, then, the famous sentence about firepower which the likes of Connor and White_Rabbit will prefer to quote:
We balk, here, at the inappropriate figure, assuming that both figures should indeed be understood literally. Causing damage of any note to a whole continent will require multiple orders of magnitude more energy than will leveling the largest of cities, yet here they are implied to be similar. Hence, we have good reason to consider this yet another example of hyperbole, for which 40k is well known, even in the absence of other evidence. Still, as it's not explicitly impossible, many will still champion a literal reading of this as a technical description of 40k capabilities. (i.e., Teratons ahoy!)The majestic form of the Vae Victus slowly angled its massive bulk towards the surface of Pavonis, powerful energies building in her forward linear accelerators. Few men knew the awesome power of destruction the captain of a starship possessed: the power to level cities and crack continents. For all that the captains of the Imperial Navy might strut and boast of the capabilities of their ponderous warships, there was nothing that could compete with the sheer destructive speed and efficiency of a Space Marine strike cruiser.
As an aside, and more plausibly, we learn further that Space Marine warships are superior to those of the regular Navy. Considering that these elite supermen are always said to be given the best of everything else in the way of equipment, this isn't very surprising.
And this is where the 40k people apparently stop with their analysis. But as will be seen below, there are, in fact, far more specific data on the firepower of the Vae Victis than this to be found in Nightbringer.
We begin, first, with an instance of tactical orbital bombardment: A comparative rarity in itself in 40k literature, but on occasion used to good effect. The effects are described as follows:
It's the Vae Victis laying down this barrage. We note, initially, that multiple bombs are used; precisely how many it doesn't seem to say, but there would seem to be at least three “clutches” or salvos of multiple shots each. Their combined effects certainly don't appear to exceed what would be obtainable to present-day Earth using nuclear ordnance, in any case.The magma bombs impacted within seconds of one another.
The first clutch hammered into the energy shield, overloading the field generators protecting this portion of the palace, and punching a hole. Subsequent bombs blasted through the wing the control centre was buried beneath, obliterating it in a thunderous detonation and hurling tank-sized blocks of stone high into the air. The next penetrated ten metres of reinforced rockcrete, blasting a crater almost a hundred metres in diameter.
Two bombs malfunctioned, the first corkscrewing wildly as it hit the upper atmosphere and landing at the edge of the Gresha Forest, immolating a sizeable portion of the Abrogas cartel's country holdings. The second hit over nine hundred kilometres from its intended target, splashing down harmlessly in the ocean.
But the rest slashed into the crater and punched deep into the command centre, their delayed fuses ensuring they exploded in its heart. Firestorms flared, incinerating every living thing within and collapsing what little remained standing. A vast black pillar of smoke, pierced with volcanic flames rose from the destroyed command centre, the shockwave of its demise rippling outwards for kilometres as though an angry god had just smote the earth.
However, this analysis is somewhat misleading, as we're told below that the weapons (bombardment cannons) are not being fired at full power:
Variable yields are in effect. When maximally exerted, the warship's capabilities are far greater. Just toying with Wong's nuclear effects calculator at SDN, I get a yield in the low hundreds of megatons for such destruction from a single warhead. We're not told how many shots this level of devastation would require, however – Though from the above, we can probably infer at least a few salvos are intended – and this may drop the requirements quite dramatically.Lord Admiral Tiberius had wanted to level the entire palace with orbital bombardment, but Uriel had resisted such a plan, knowing that the vast forces the Vae Victus could unleash would level everything within fifty kilometres of the palace. The greatly reduced yield on the magma bombs had struck with precisely the correct force, and though there was certain to be some collateral casualties, Uriel hoped that that they had been kept to a minimum.
The safe upper limit, in any case, will not be much higher than the four hundred megatons or thereabouts which the nuclear calculator indicates for a single detonation. (Multiple small bombs being rather more efficient at levelling than one large one.) Vastly impressive firepower, to be sure, but even on this highest end very far from the teratons and petatons still commonly claimed as typical warship yields by certain parties.
In conjunction with our observations on the first passage quoted, we note further that while these yields are very compatible with leveling cities – And are in fact probably even excessive for such purposes – they won't be breaking apart any continents, unless fire is kept up for a considerable duration. This fits with the generally observed trend in 40k literature that the more specific a description of an incident is, the less well it'll tend to yield itself to inflationary interpretations. It's always the vaguest quotes with the most latitude for spin-doctoring that the fanboys latch onto, in the process ignoring much more readily quantifiable examples.
What truly and conclusively sets a firm and far lower upper limit on the might of the Vae Victis, however, is the last quote we present. The context is an explicit dilemma between the binary alternatives of a surgical strike on a villain's underground installations and a planet-wrecking Exterminatus with special cyclonic torpedoes; if the former can't be used, the latter is required to destroy the MacGuffin demon he's summoning. An inquisitor argues in favor of the second option while Uriel and the planetary governor, who want to preserve the planet, are trying to dissuade him.
We read:
The supposedly continent-cracking weapons cannot destroy a mine shaft some kilometers deep, even through sustained bombardment at maximum power. Any further commentary would seem quite superfluous. :D'How deep do these bore mines go?' he asked,.
'It varies,' replied Shonai, 'but the deepest are perhaps ten thousand metres, while others are around three or four thousand. It depends on the seam that is being mined and how deep it's economically viable to continue drilling.'
(…)
'There,' he said, 'We have the location and can attack without resorting to genocide.'
'I'm afraid that this changes nothing, Captain Ventris,' said Tiberius softly.
'Why not?'
'Even at full yield on our bombardment cannon, the magma bombs will not be able to penetrate that far into the planet's crust.'
As an endnote, we may again consider the behavior of the loud 40k fanboy factions at SBC and SDN, who will often refer to Nightbringer. No one who has quoted the popular continent-cracking description in this book has ever cared to share this last text, though its implications for the interpretation of the former are very obvious, to say the least. Additionally, they have insisted that literal reading of the first quote is not only reasonable, but actually preferable, despite the book itself showing this to be anything but the case.
Thus, we're once more left with the question of whether people are being ignorant or deliberately dishonest in their selective quoting of the novels. For many of the hangers-on, it might well be that they don't actually read the books and simply parrot the party lines from Connor and company. But as for the die-hard fans like White_Rabbit, who read nigh-literally everything the GW imprints publish? Passing judgment on them, we can hardly be so charitable.
