Reckoner
GUTS AND GEARS — THE BEASTS AND MACHINES OF THE IRON KINGDOMS
He who is the Grand Reclaimant is, too, the reckoner of man, burning away the sins of the faithful with but the merest glance.
– The Canon of the True Law
Held as a triumph of Menite will and dedication with a name derived from scripture, the Reckoner is blessed in the annals of Protectorate history as its first purely purposed warjack, a symbol of the holy crusade and icon of the Lawgiver.
The Reckoner is a titan of steam and steel, and its boilers are filled with holy water. Its primary armament is the powerful Condemner cannon, engineered to fire specially crafted pyromite-filled shells that erupt with blinding brilliance and searing heat to reduce even the sturdiest armor to molten slag. In its right hand it bears the brutal Consecrator, a heavily reinforced mace.
Cloying, incense-laden smoke billows forth from this bludgeon, filling the lungs of those who venture too close and partially veiling the Reckoner from sight.The late Hierarch Voyle instigated the secret construction of the Reckoner in early 602 AR in the badlands near the edge of the Bloodstone Marches, far from the prying eyes of Cygnaran intelligence. assembled there. Drawing on decades of experience with the Crusader and Vanquisher warjacks, a large team of veteran Sul-Menite mechaniks and Vassals of Menoth set to work with zeal drafting the blueprints for a dedicated warjack that would exceed the performance of the older models while still being simple enough for efficient mass production. A few years later, the testing of the first Reckoner began. With its purpose-built chassis and improved pneumatic venting in its legs, the machine proved to be swifter than either of the earlier heavy warjacks, with armor just as resilient. The new design was a resounding success.
The creation of an efficient assembly system was as important and urgent as the design of the warjack itself; with the shadow of war looming closer, warjacks would soon be desperately needed in quantity. The tireless development efforts yielded a system of construction that was faster and simpler to implement than the laborious methods the Protectorate had so far employed. As the standardization of parts for assembly continued, minor modifications were made, and a mere six months after the initial test trials the first production Reckoner stood gleaming in freshly painted blood-red and ivory livery. Only one obstacle stood in the way of rapid manufacture: the lack of arcanum-grade cortexes.
Cygnaran intelligence had underestimated the ability of the Protectorate to produce large quantities of warjacks, working from the mistaken assumption that they were entirely reliant on the trickle of smuggled cortexes they had been acquiring via sympathizers in Khador. Unbeknownst to them, Hierarch Voyle had already set plans in motion to compensate for this reliance on smuggled cortexes. The capture of knowledgeable foreigners versed in cortex production gave rise to the Vassals of Menoth, a group of arcanists tasked to handle mechanikal fabrication, including the creation of cortexes.
Mere weeks after Reckoner production began, Khador’s Queen Ayn Vanar implemented a plan to destroy the cortex-smuggling trade. She considered the Menite sympathizers to be stealing vital resources from the crown and depriving the Khadoran war industries of cortexes that should have been installed in Khadoran machines. Under new laws and decrees implemented by Queen Vanar, those who participated in this trade were guilty of treason. A small warning period was provided, but many of the Khadoran Menite smugglers did not appreciate the severity of the situation and defied the new law. To underscore the queen’s intent, the warcaster Kommander Sorscha Kratikoff was given leave to find and execute those involved in the smuggling ring.
Though Khador’s actions halted the smuggling, they also led Cygnaran Reconnaissance agents to discover the secret Protectorate Reckoner manufacturing facility. Survivors of Kommander Kratikoff’s attack rushed south to make contact with their Protectorate allies and in the process came under the watchful eye of Cygnaran border rangers. While the CRS ended the smuggling trade, they were too late to halt production of the Reckoner. The source of the cortexes for these new ’jacks remained a mystery in Cygnar for some time. Caspia rocked with shock waves when the scope of the threat on their eastern border became clear, quite separate from their war with Khador in Llael.
The production facility managed to churn out dozens of Reckoners before it was abandoned. Manufacturing was relocated to the Factorium in Sul, where production resumed. To this day the Reckoner remains a bold instrument of Menoth and a testament to the drive and effort of the Menites involved in its genesis. Equipped with cortexes fashioned by Vassals of Menoth and a chassis built entirely by the faithful, the Reckoner is pure and unsullied by the taint of outsiders, a righteous weapon in the Protectorate’s arsenal.
In the three years since it entered service, the Reckoner has seen action in every major Protectorate engagement and proven its worth every time.
Regular engagements with Cygnar have seen the Reckoner used to great effect laying down devastating barrages of fire. The Northern Crusade tested the warjack’s endurance and ease of maintenance, and the ’jack exceeded all expectations. Additionally, its incendiary shells were instrumental in the Razing of Fisherbrook. These facts make it ideally suited to such warfare conducted far from home, and foes of the Protectorate justly have come to fear this warjack.
Among its most recent victories was the destruction of the 282nd Trencher Company “Ryland’s Rascals,” including its accompaniment of warjacks, in the Reclamation of Sul campaign. The Cygnarans were lured into a central supply depot stocked with unrefined Menoth’s Fury when three Reckoners under the command of Feora unleashed an incendiary barrage that caused the depot to detonate in a massive ball of flame.
Interdiction of Judgment
The soldiers of this interdiction comprise the ready striking arm of the large garrison posted to Tower Judgment which has been increasingly called upon to protect the northern border of the Protectorate of Menoth. Temple Flameguard remain the most numerous and significant core of this interdiction, but it has been recently expanded to become a more mixed force capable of dealing with any threats which may arise out of the Bloodstone Marches. This includes maintaining a constant eye on troop movements of the increasingly active Skorne Empire.
What do I reckon of the Reckoner? Well, fer starters me an’ me mates don’t call ’em Reckoners. Nah, we call ’em Thunderclouds on account o’ the fact that a few together look like a dark cloud from afar, an’ their cannons are all thunderous-like.
Blasted Menites use ’em like mobile artillery or to conceal their troops, cuz ya can’t easily see what’s lurkin’ behind the wall o’ smoke they make. Tricky buggers ta deal with, too, make no mistake. Them cannons they got can lay down a right terrible fire from beyond the range of most of our weapons.
An’ the stinkin’ smoke they waft from those soddin’ clubs makes it bloody ’ard to hit ’em back close in or far back. Cuz it’s ’ard to smack ’em at range, an’ in close they pound ya while ya choke on the smoke, ya gotta use yer noggin an’ play crafty: sneak within strikin’ range, but not so close yer in danger of bein’ walloped around the ’ead.
–Cobb Blackwell, Cygnaran trencher
Fonte: No Quarter 22
