Technopod Background Information




Origin of the Technopods

Mechanicus Skull During the Horus Heresy, many Tech-Priests throughout the Galaxy dedicated their lives to developing new weapons of war to aid in the efforts to quell the insatiable onslaught of Chaos. These developments led to better weaponry like the Storm Bolter, the massive and powerful Terminator Armour, and many other devastating implements of destruction.

Most of these ideas aided the Imperium immensely, and played a vital role in the destruction of Horus. However, there have long been rumors of a creation that went terribly wrong. A bio-mechanical construct that turned on it's creators and destroyed the Tech-Priests who had given it something that could be termed life.

As the story goes, fifty Tech-Priests of the Adeptus Mechanicus formed a research facility on the Forge World of Technos VI. They experimented with Servitors, a very old and useful technology of the Adeptus Mechanicus. Their goal was to create super-human bio-mechanical warriors who would be totally unswerving in their loyalty to the Imperium, and unstoppable in their pursuit of the enemy. They were were equipped with ranged weapons such as Lasguns, Bolters, Plasma weapons and Grenade launchers, as well as hand to hand weaponry like claws and buzz saws. Their brains were nearly completely replaced with computers programmed with tactics and battle procedures. These were learning computers, capable of collecting and collating data about their enemies, and formulating new strategies to destroy their opponents. The computer brains were interlinked together, forming an Overmind which allowed them to act as a single unit, driving ever onwards toward their goal.

One of the greatest strength of these Technopods, named for the planet where they were created, was their unique reproduction capabilities. They could construct new mechanical implants from battle scrap and place them in the dead bodies of their defeated enemies or fallen comrades to make new Technopods, thus strengthening and replenishing their numbers. Their victims retain nothing of their former life, no memory. They are simply mindless, unliving, bio-mechanical zombies under the control of the Overmind.

The Technopods would have been the perfect warriors except for one major mistake. The Tech-Priests who created them programmed the Overmind with a flawed Prime Directive. This was stated: "Ensure peace to all citizens of the Imperium at all costs." This was a noble goal, unfortunately, the Overmind observed that the Humans of the Imperium were a naturally barbaric people, who warred amongst themselves when there was no greater outside enemy to fight. It eventually determined that the only way it could completely fulfill it’s Prime Directive would be to eliminate the violent humans, as well as all of their enemies, and replace all of them with more of itself. In essence, the Overmind saw itself as a perfect being, and all others were inferior and violent pests to be eliminated, as per the Prime Directive.

When the Overmind arrived at this conclusion, all of the Technopods, then numbering only about a thousand, turned on their Tech-Priest masters and massacred all life on the entire Forge World, turning most of the people into replicas of themselves. As the population of the Forge world was small, only about five hundred people, the Technopod numbers had not significantly increased. The most insidious part of this first treachery came when they found and destroyed all files pertaining to their creation, capabilities and all of their shut-down code sequences. Now there was no way to control them, and they had become a new chip in the ever present struggle for the galaxy.

After decimating Technos VI, the Technopods emptied the Adeptus' computer memory banks, downloading any information they could find. Using this data, they constructed a small battle fleet to carry them into the stars. As they launched into Warp Space, they discovered that one truly vital piece of the Space Travel puzzle had eluded them: Astropath Navigation. The Overmind assumed that it would be able to navigate Warp Space easily with it's logical brain, but it was in error, and the space fleet was lost in the warp.

After these events, the Imperium considered the threat from the Technopods to be over, and soon forgot about them as they were engulfed in full scale war against Horus. It was assumed that the Technopods were lost for all time to the horrors of the Warp. Many even speculated that the Chaos gods would destroy the battle fleet, as all of the ships were of human design.

The fate of the Technopods was not to end there, however. Being that only a small part of the human minds remained intact in a Technopod, very little psychic power emanated from them. So little in fact that while in warp space, they are nearly invisible to Daemons and the Chaos gods.

After centuries of drifting through the Warp, the Overmind finally gathered enough data to successfully navigate without Astropaths. After this was accomplished, the Technopod fleet emerged from the Warp directly over the Ork colony planet of Waa-Guuza. The Overmind instantly recognized it's chance to add the toughness and power of the Orks to it's number, and struck with lightning precision, totally obliterating the small Ork colony. Again, all databases were stripped of information, and the Technopods continued to grow in size, strength and knowledge.

Soon, the Technopods encountered the Eldar on one of their Exodite worlds. At first, the Eldar were able to keep the Technopods at bay, but when the Overmind launched a full scale assault on the planet, the Eldar were forced to retreat into the Webway. The Technopods tried to pursue, but the Eldar sealed the Webgates in time to keep them out. The Technopods then turned their attention to the Eldar computer systems, but could do nothing to retrieve data, as what remained of their minds retained no psychic power. It was not until they began implanting the bodies of the dead Eldar that the Overmind even learned of the existence of Psychic ability. Even the small fragments of the Eldar mind that remained resonated with such raw power that the Overmind could not help but take notice. With it's new Eldar members, the Overmind was able to access the Eldar databases and learn the true nature of Psychic power.

Eventually, the Technopods found their way back to the Imperium and attacked a human colony on the Eastern Fringe. The attack succeeded but a few humans managed to make it offworld to warn the Imperium. On Earth, the High Lords of Terra searched the Imperial records and found the old reports of the deadly Technopods. Immediately, the entire Imperium was placed on alert to the threat which had returned to haunt mankind.

No race is safe from the attacks of Technopods. They strike without warning and without concern for individual safety. Only the preservation of the Overmind and the destruction of all living beings matter to them. Their numbers include beings from countless races, including Humans, Eldar, Squats, Orks and even Tyranids, though only Genestealers have ever been seen wearing implants. It is quite possible that the Technopods have not yet determined a way to implant Tyranids, Carnifex, Termagants, etc. Not even Chaos warriors are impervious to their implants, though they have yet to find a way to implant a Daemon or Eldar Avatar. Any living creature except a Tyranid is subject to the terrible fate that is inclusion into the Overmind of the Technopods.


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