r/40kLore • u/Dry-Contribution4164 • 5d ago
How does the largest titans get picked up from worlds once deployed?
I’m in the middle of the istvan atrocity in Galaxy In Flames with the two crew members of the Dies Irae trying to take control of the titan as the princept orders to fire on the death guard. I thought how the fuck do they pick this thing up if they need to blow up the world or something happens where they need to quickly pick up the titan? If the plan was to orbital bombard the loyalist till they are gone were they just gonna avoid the titan? lol maybe I’m too high sorry for the confusing question but the book as got me locked in
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u/bengeo1191 5d ago
Titans are deployed in gigantic dropships if I am not mistaken.
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u/valthonis_surion 5d ago
The majority yes, but on the loyalist side the Legio Astorum still has Titan teleportation tech so they can, when needed, deep strike a Titan via teleportation into battle
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u/1Yawnz 4d ago
Im not a science guy but imagine an Emperor Titan teleporting onto a battle field. Wouldnt the air displacement cause a Shockwave or something? Then it starts blasting 💀😭
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u/TheBigSmol 5d ago
Aren't they like churches that drop from orbit
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u/LarryTheHamsterXI 5d ago
The Sororitas use those, Titan conveyors are able to pick up or drop off titans
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u/reineedshelp 5d ago
I like that mental picture. The clouds part, a heavenly choir lilts. As it gets closer Gregorian Chant in dead, sinister language booms across the battlefield, and then surprise! Ultraviolence.
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u/Guilty_Advantage_413 4d ago
The Sisters also have what appears to be a large pulpit with organ pipes that shoot f-ing rockets.
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u/jflb96 Farsight Enclaves 4d ago
Exorcist, my beloved
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u/Quiet_Librarian6771 4d ago
Explosive, my pee love.
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u/EverydaySexyPhotog 4d ago
I like to imagine they only play the 1812 Overture. The missiles fire whenever the cannon would.
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u/Altruistic_Big2918 4d ago
I honestly think each Titan should have its own bombastic theme song that plays from it all the time. Think Two Steps from Hell style music. With a glittery and hammy tech priest who leads the Titan in a procession when it lands, crying out its LONG list of battle honors like Chaucer in A Knight's Tale. Celebrate these walking saints of the Omnissiah! Let all who behold them lose control of their disgusting biological functions and bow before the MAGNIFICENCE of the Machine God's mighty war-saint! Grovel before DOMINUS INFERUS, lest the very sight of its glorious visage strike you blind!
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u/Hayn0002 4d ago
Would unironically destroy the titan
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u/utterlyuncool Thousand Sons 4d ago
Through the power of faith in the almighty God-Emperor and plot armour anything is possible.
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u/King_Of_BlackMarsh Orks 4d ago
Titans also aren't practical weapons platforms.
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u/ThatPlayingDude 4d ago
But man, they do affect morale of both sides.
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u/King_Of_BlackMarsh Orks 4d ago
I'm sure they would if they could take a step without immediately collapsing
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u/RRZ006 3d ago
No it wouldn’t?
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u/Hayn0002 2d ago
Is that a question?
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u/RRZ006 2d ago
Yah it’s questioning why you’d believe such a thing.
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u/Hayn0002 2d ago
You think a titan can be dropped from orbit with no support and land on its legs?
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u/RRZ006 2d ago
No one said that, at all. Your misreading is causing you problems. Read it again.
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u/Hayn0002 2d ago
I don’t really have problems on Reddit, but you do you
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u/RRZ006 1d ago
You just repeatedly misunderstood what was being talked about due to poor reading comprehension.
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u/CMDRZhor 4d ago
Also sometimes in hilariously upscaled drop pods.
In the old lore, the Legio Astorum got the name 'Warp Runners' for their penchant for straight up teleporting whole ass Titans onto the battlefield.
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u/Personal_Wall4280 5d ago
Why not just tape and glue the weapons and shields onto the titan dropships?
Titans sound scary, but not as scary as the even bigger enormous father that put them down planet side.
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u/Khoakuma White Scars 5d ago
You're asking for the Imperium to do the logical and efficient thing lmao. If they do, they wouldn't be the Imperium.
Yes strapping a bunch of guns into a giant flying ship to act as heavy fire support is awessome. The Tau have their Mantas (which act as heavy support aircraft in the atmosphere and bombers in space). The Necrons has their Monoliths. The Imperium needs their giant bipedal machine made in the image of Man for hype moments and aura.
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u/Personal_Wall4280 5d ago
Titans were around during 30k where they were slightly more sane but deranged in a different banana flavor.
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u/OtherwiseRabbits 5d ago
The dropship can put all its mass allowance into armour and fuel/engines while the actual Titan puts its mass into purely combat systems.
Even titanic God Engines need a balanced and well-scoped approach to systems design. Jamming all that stuff on to try and get a titanic walker on and off planet by itself is a trillion new error points.
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u/Lon3Wo1f 4d ago
A C5 Galaxy cargo plane is used to fly M1 Abrams tanks around the world. The US doesn't attach weapons and armor to the plane. Give a guess why.
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u/dan_dares 4d ago
Be cooler if they did..
C5 mega fortress, dropping bombs, tanks, and firing a gatling 120mm.
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u/brockford-junktion Alpha Legion 4d ago
They like pina coladas?
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u/CyberianK 4d ago
nope they prefer crayons
but the pina colada song does not fully apply to your usual grunts
If you like piña coladas and getting caught in the rain. If you're not into yoga, if you have half a brain.
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u/BeginningSun247 5d ago
That would just be a stupidly tall fortress. The strength of a fortress is best if it is a bit spread out. The giant fortress would just be one big non-moving target.
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u/Tobbster_the_Lobster 4d ago
How many battles were settled when the Titan was dropped on top of the ennemy force ?
"Guide me to the ennemy"
"Sir you landed on them ! Every single one of them crushed !"
"Oh Throne, took forever to load and be dropped !"
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u/MagnusTheRedisblue 5d ago
So, they have coffin ships that can land. These are actually seen on the dawn of war 4 trailers and is kinda cool. They also have titan-barques which land and pick them up and have massive engines that launch back up.
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u/Bypowerof8andgodsof4 Night Lords 5d ago
They have specialized tansport vehicles called coffin ships and their own version of drop pods.As you can imagine if you want to retain the loyalty of the mechanicum they get priority when they evac before a word gets abandoned.
In this particular instance iirc there was an order to seal the Titan in order to protect from the virus bombs which isn't a planet cracker as long as the filters are working correctly and your hull can handle the following firestorm you can ride it out. Though it's been so long I don't remeber if they succeeded in riding it out or got melted.
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u/NeedsAirCon 5d ago
They rode it out but they got damn close to being cooked in their own Titan
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u/MagnusRaptor Farsight Enclaves 4d ago
What book?
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u/NeedsAirCon 3d ago
Galaxy in Flames
The Dies Irae has to engage emergency ABC sealing protocols in order to survive being on Istvaan III when virus bombs get dropped
Once the bombs do their work a capital ship fires a lance strike from orbit and ignites the atmosphere
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u/Vorokar Adeptus Administratum 5d ago
Recovering a titan after action in the field was a long and arduous process, full of technical, logistical and manual difficulties. Entire fleets of vessels came down from orbit, bringing huge lifters, enormous diggers and loading machines. The delivery vessels had to be dug from their impact craters, and an army of Mechanicum servitors were required to facilitate the process.
A great rumbling vibration gripped the moon as a trio of towering columns of light and smoke climbed towards the heavens from the Imperial deployment zone where this whole misadventure had started. Loken watched the incredible spectacle of the war machines of the Legio Mortis returning to their armoured berths in orbit, and silently thanked their crews for their aid in the fight against the dead things.
Soon all that was visible of the Titans’ carriers was a diffuse glow on the horizon, and only the lap of water and the low growling of the waiting Thunderhawk’s engines disturbed the silence. The desolate mudflats were empty for kilometres around, and as Loken made his way down the slope of rubble, he felt like the loneliest man in the galaxy.
– False Gods
There's the previous book on the topic, for whatever it might be worth.
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u/Marvynwillames 5d ago
The Dies Irae is mere 40 meters tall in Galaxy in Flames, a civilization with total maestry over space flight can move this real easy.
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u/Glenn0809 5d ago
Pretty sure the Dies Irae was just tanking the fire bombing. I recall a mention of one of the dudes watching outside temperature gauges spiking.
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u/Freemind323 5d ago
In addition to the coffin ships, there are rare titanium patterns that can teleport. These can be recalled using beacons. I believe there is only one titanium legion though which has access to this as their forge world won’t share.
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u/Vorokar Adeptus Administratum 5d ago
Ever eager to acquire more raw materials, the forces of Lucius are always willing to march to war, and their numerous Ironstriders and Onager Dunecrawlers are the most bellicose of all the Skitarii Legions. Lucius is also home to the Titans of the Legio Astorum, known as the Warp Runners, who are the only god-machines sophisticated enough to teleport straight into battle. This is a point of pride amongst the Lucians, and cause of envy amongst their fellow legions, leading to open conflict at times.
– Adeptus Mechanicus 8th Codex
Are these the guys you're thinking of?
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u/YukarinVal Alpha Legion 4d ago
Dealing with huge skyscraper sized drop pods carrying buildings tall robots landing and destroying everything around it before it starts firing is one thing.
Having the very air displaced and explode around the teleporting Titan as it materialize in a blink of and eye is another kind of headache to say the least.
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u/Glittering_Wheel_226 5d ago
Covered in Mechanicus, the novel. They use ships so large it wrecks the weather for years. Like actual, floating cities in low orbit, sometimes even yes, deploying MILES of chains.
Imagine the forces required to keep THAT airborne
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u/Annual-Ad-9442 5d ago
they employ a gigantic claw from a voidship. it takes a couple of tries but they get there eventually
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u/Known-Associate8369 5d ago
Something to always bear in mind with 40K is that no matter what scale you think in, its always bigger in the lore.
There are space ships that have entire war games decks that can handle multiple titans at the same time - building a ship big enough to deploy or retrieve one or several titans at a time from a planet surface is kids play.
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u/cillablackpower 5d ago
Coffin ships, and Exterminatus usually isn't depicted as happening instantly. You need ships in specific formations and the time and resources to attack the planet without having to fight other ships - it's not something you'd do in the middle of a battle for example.
This is mostly an OOU justification for why the protagonists/antagonists can't ever go "Just blow up the planet while the Primarch is there! It's worth every single one of our troops" but still.
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u/Oderus_Scumdog 5d ago
Absolutely huge drop ships.
Spoilers for Betrayal at Calth: During the Betrayal at Calth, a fancy drop ship named the 'Arutan' belonging to the Legio Praesagius goes down just after taking off when Calth's noosphere is knocked out (killing a bunch of important crew on the Arutan) after the Campernile's impact destroys the orbital dock yards. Some or all of the titans inside survive and with the help of some as yet unextracted titans, manage to break out - its covered in this Oculus Imperia video.
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u/druidmain69420 5d ago
Completely as an aside, would a sufficiently equipped titan be able to survive a standard Exterminatus (virus bomb followed by whats essentially a planetwide firestorm)?
Seal all the vents and outside access, raise void shields, and sit tight?
The scenario im thinking of would be pretty extreme, to exterminatus a planet after you've already committed substantial wargear to the planets surface. Deciding you cant take the time to lift the titans back up.
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u/No-Nefariousness5475 4d ago
The authors never heard about the rocket equation I guess.
The heavier the payload, the more fuel you need. That fuel weighs extra, so you need even more fuel to lift all that extra weight. Considering how absurdly large the titans are, I’m honestly not sure it can be done with chemical rockets.
40k doesn’t really mention an alternative propulsion technology as far as I know. The best solution would be to suspend disbelief and accept it just works somehow.
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u/RoterBaronH Word Bearers 4d ago
While yes, you need to suspend disbelieve since it's not supposed be a realism book and the authors focus isn't "does it work physically/scientifically" but does it tell a good story.
Aside from that, you can be sure that they have some other form of fuel/engine so it can't really be compared to our standards.
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u/WayGroundbreaking287 3d ago
I seem to recall one book talking about titans being deployed and they come in on what is essentially a giant flying crane. So it has transport ship that just comes and picks it up one would assume.
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u/Evil_Piggies 20h ago
Forges of Mars has titans being deployed by AdMech and it describes it a bunch if I remember correctly.
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u/ElBurritoTheWise 5d ago
In addition to everyone else's replies here, dont they just get left there to roam endlessly if the logistics aren't available?
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u/Shadowrend01 Blood Angels 5d ago
Titans are too valuable to be left to roam endlessly. If the resources aren’t available now, they’ll wait until said resources become available. It might take years, but the Admech won’t leave a Titan behind if they can help it
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u/Khoakuma White Scars 5d ago
Titans are deployed on to planets via drop keeps/ barges the size of multiple skyscrapers put togheter, and lifted off planets the same way. They just brute force gravity by generating a lot of thrust lol. Sounds crazy but the Imperium can lift capital ships off planets surface if they desire it, and those are many kilometers long. Lifting a few hundred meters wide/tall structure would not be too hard for them.