Ugulmak's Red Skull Tramplas

 

Ugulmak's Red Skull Tramplas – Evil Suns Gargant Bigmob

@argaastes

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Detail of Gargant-designate War Engine Gitsmasha
@argaastes

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'Wossee lookin' at, Grubnik?' murmured Dufgutz, as the two Evil Suns nervously looked up the gantry at the Kaptin, whose gimlet eyes were locked on the horizon. Frowning, Grubnik cupped a hand to his pointed ear, quizzically. 

'WOSSEE LOOKIN' AT?' repeated Dufgutz, shouting over the riotous background noise that accompanied all Gargant operations.

The two had been standing underneath the lookout tower for nearly an hour, and in all that time the Kaptin had barely moved; merely adjusting his footing to account for the great war engine's swaying stride.

Neither of the orks could have put it into words, but the thought of staying still seemed unnatural. Evil Suns at rest were twitchy and irritable at best, and certainly not... focussed.

'Guess we'll find out soon enough', replied Dufgutz, with a shrug. Turning around, he squinted into the distance. After a moment, he nudged Grubnik with a scabby elbow. The other ork turned to him, and saw a mouthful of grinning teeth. 'But I reckon it might 'ave sumfin to do wiv dem.'

Grubnik looked out. For a moment, he couldn't see anything. And then... on the edge of the horizon, wavering under the heat haze and shieldwash, stood Imperial Titans.

Big. Red. Imperial Titans.

***

[Tactical assessment] 

Imperial stratego-ikon

• Offensive capabilities superlative
• Defensive capabilities extensive
• Mobility limited
• Numbers estimated at ca. 47 War Engines; 10,000 secondary/support.
• War Engine-class force
• Threat level designation: Primary

[Strategic Designation] – Evil Suns Gargants

[Theatre] – Armageddon Secundus.

[Disposition] – Deployed in the wastelands west of Styx Tertiary, the Bigmob broke through and pursued the 6th Army Group to the banks of the River Heslreach, before swinging north to cut off the 7th Army's  line of supply and support Ghazghkull's Army Group in breaking the Stygies Occidental megafactory-complex.

[Notes]

Gargants are the ork's equivalent of Imperial Titans, weapons of colossal size and commensurate power. Like Imperial Titans, they stride into battle sheathed in crackling energy fields and bearing weapons that are but one step below those suitable for void war. Seemingly built in collective response to an unconscious urge, Gargants emerge from wherever orks gather in sufficient numbers to bring together a critical mass of the ork oddboyz known as mekz. They are a folk-urge mix of war engine and religious idol, formed in the ork's idealised figure of great size and crushing strength. While some bear additional weapons in heads that act as turrets, many, if not most, are built to reflect the ork's cruel and frightening gods – Mork and Gork.

There are a dizzying array of sub-types attributed to Gargants by the Adeptus Munitorum, but this is in a futile attempt to classify the chaotic. The obsessive cataloguing beloved of the Imperium has limited strategic use when it comes to these war engines, for all Gargants are completely individual, their size and armament determined solely by the whim of the Meks in charge of their construction, and dependent on the materials and number of slaves available to construct them. Generalisations used for tactical advantage are few and far between, and most Imperial forces merely use pragmatic descriptions, such as 'Great Gargant' to differentiate one particularly larger than others.

They are frequently constructed in oversized versions of the same workshops used for ork vehicles – often, in fact, the same workshops, merely expanded to accommodate the Gargant's footprint. They will be constructed using materials and fuels found in their locality, with the result that some Gargants utilise scavenged or recovered power sources far beyond the understanding of the broader Imperium – such as those created upon Angelis, or upon conquered Forgeworlds. Conversely, even isolated so-called 'feral orks' will construct Gargants using wood, stone or still more unexpected materials.

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Gargant Bigmobs – To the orks, all are first and foremost 'Gargants'. As they are seen as literally embodying the ork gods, they are also commonly referred to as 'Gork', 'Mork', or a variation – with disagreements over which of the two principal deities the particular idol embodies being common until a second can be built. Few tribes reach a size sufficient to construct three or more Gargants, but even here this causes none of the psychological hand-wringing or religious angst rife amongst the Techpriesthood of Mars – orkish psychology being flexible enough to effortlessly elide the contradiction of having the same god inhabiting multiple bodies.

Gargants from the Red Skull Tramplas alongside supporting infantry of the Third Evil Suns Horde, pictured from the Styx Tertiary defences.
@argaastes

When ork tribes combine in a Waa-Ork religious migration, Gargants from multiple warbands are frequently brought together into what is termed a 'Bigmob' – a formation that proliferates and increases in number as more and more Gargant Kaptins hear of the Bigmob and move to join them. As a Bigmobs' size is dictated by the size of the Waa-ork, they thus encompass forces anywhere in size from those equivalent to Imperial Titan Maniples to those approaching Legio strength.

Waa-Ghazghkull was astonishingly strong, with sufficient Gargants present to form not one but three Bigmobs – each of which headed the assaults on Armageddon Secundus. Of these, the first into combat was – perhaps unsurprisingly – an Evil Suns force that had coalesced around the infamous Red Skull Tramplas, under Warboss Ugulmak the Mangler.

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'We'z gunna kill 'yoo; we'z gunna krush yoo – we brought down yer gods and trashed yer burg!'

Translation of graffiti found daubed on Laudat Omnissiah, downed Legio Metalica Reaver Titan

Evil Suns boyz mob that joined the Red Skull Tramplas after the Styx crossings. It is common in large gatherings of orks for isolated mobs of minority clans to break off from the existing tribe and flock to a powerful warband dominated by their own clan, eventually creating colossal monoculture forces. The strength, power and sheer mechanical magnificence of Gargants was an intoxicating mixture to the orkish mindset, and the Red Skull Tramplas attracted orks from all across Waa-Ghazghkull.
@giokahnni

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[Commanders] – Warboss Ugulmak the Mangler is known to have been a successful Evil Suns warlord in his own right. His warband is recorded as having been active around the Vaupas Cluster, on the northeastern edge of the galactic core, so his warband must have crossed thousands of light-years to join Ghazghkull’s horde on Armageddon.

Ugulmak's transport fleet contained a number of the single-use dropships known simply as 'Roks'. Later used to deliberate and devastating effect in the Third War as direct bombardment, in Ghazghkull's first invasion, such craft were used merely to deploy Gargants to the surface.
@argaatses

The Red Skull Tramplas, as the warband was known, had plundered numerous mineral and resource-rich worlds over the course of many years, and had fought a number of extensive conflicts with the inhabitants of the region, both Imperial and xenos.

Such piracy and reaving meant that they had nearly a dozen Gargants constructed when word reached them of Ghazghkull's Waa-ork; and Ugulmak ordered the fleet assembled. The ensuing march to Armageddon took in a number of stops, notably including a opportunistic assault on the Imperial feral world of Gargathea and a bloody but ultimately fruitless raid on the stronghold world of Golgotha.

Inquisitor Horst later stated that the squats of Golgotha – hitherto Imperial-leaning but neutral – would have opted to stay out of the Armageddon conflict had it not been for Ugulmak's actions.

Evil Sun boyz believed to be veterans of the conflict on Golgotha. This particular mob bears hallmarks of Ugulmak's rule, but were pictured on Armageddon operating as part of another Evil Suns force – perhaps owing to the loss of their transport, or simply the whim of the mob's Nob.
@ork.bot

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[Insignia and appearance]

By the time the warband made planetfall, the core of the Red Skull Tramplas was seventeen strong – easily the largest single contribution of Gargants to Waa-Ghazghkull, and it was both sheer strength of numbers and experience that meant Ugulmak was quickly seen as the de facto commander of the Bigmob. 

While some warbands retained individual Gargants, many – particularly those of the Evil Suns warbands – opted to follow the Tramplas, and by the beginning of the Season of Storms nearly fifty principal Battle Titan displacement War Engines were moving towards the Palidus Line at the Styx. 

Snazgrub's Snarla
@argaastes

While nowhere near as fast as the rest of the clan, the Red Skull Tramplas proved considerably more manoeuvrable than their rivals in the Goff and Bad Moons tribes, and were the first Bigmob into combat – a substantial source of pride for both Ugulmak and the Clanboss, Shazfrag.

Once assembled in full strength, the Bigmob was a riot of colour and pattern, but the core force of the Red Skull Tramplaz could usually be picked out by their all-over red paintjobs. The Snarla, pictured above, was the personal ride of Bigmek Snazgrub, and while it is difficult to pick out a representative Gargant, Snarla shows both the enlarged boiler engineering deck distinctive of the Bigmob, and the substantial secondary gundecks emblematic of the Red Skull Tramplas.

Rear view of the Snarla, showing the stripped-back rear armour and reinforced shoulders.
@argaastes

Ugulmak’s gargants boasted numerous flak batteries clustered on their shoulders and upper works – reportedly since nothing frustrated the warboss more than losing his prize machines to air strikes before they could get into action against enemy war engines. This enhanced protection – presumably developed during their formative years – would serve them well in the later stages of the war, during the advance along the Via Perditia where they repelled numerous attack runs by Imperial bombers.

In comparison to their Gargant cousins in Baddruk's Bashin' Moonz and Kaptin Zuggluk’s Krusha Mob, Ugulmak's Red Skull Tramplas were typically more lightly armoured in the sides and rear – though 'lighter' is a relative term as the Gargants still proved abominably resilient. This reduction in armour allowed for greater stride length and improved responsiveness compared with the Goff and Bad Moon equivalents.

The other notable diagnostic was their enlarged engineering decks – most of the Tramplas' Gargants made extensive use of the greenskin's peculiar expertise in field technology, not only to produce their greasy humming power fields, but also to hypercatalyse traditional fossil fuel boilers – allowing coal, oil or even wood burners to drive these blasphemous god-machines forward at a pace well-suited to their Evil Suns heritage. 

@argaastes

Most Gargants walk on two legs, sometimes supplemented by a central track-unit at the rear, but the Red Skull Tramplas' Gargants were frequently track-propelled, as shown above. This allowed considerably faster straight line progression, and was well-suited to the low and level wastelands of Armageddon Secundus.

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Prior to joining Waa-Ghazghkull, Ugulmak’s gargants fought alongside those of Kroksnik’s Crooked Moon tribe at the second battle of Thrall’s Kiln, where they accounted for two Titans of the Legio Invigilata in exchange for the loss of one of their own gargants. 

Their first battle on Armageddon came at Styx Tertiary on the Palidus Line, where they faced the Steel Legion 6th Army in support of the ash waste mIlita Border Defence Force. Lacking emplaced heavy weaponry, the Imperials were forced to engage the Red Skull Tramplas with little more than field guns – with predictable results.

The 6th Army Group's retreat was hurried but effective in preserving their numbers – though the dismaying strength and sheer numbers of the orks would long-haunt the Army's morale.
@shotgun_miniatures

The Bigmob were instrumental in allowing the Evil Suns to cross the Styx here, settling on the western bank of the river and lobbing huge quantities of ordnance into the entrenched 6th Army. With the Imperials largely suppressed and little meaningful counter-battery fire being returned, the Army Group's Gretchin Horde were pushed to the front to deploy pontoon bridges and effect a means for the infantry to cross.

Within six hours the first ork mobs were pouring across the temporary bridges, where they ran into the teeth of the detemined defenders' fire. Casualties on both sides started mounting up, but Ugulmak had grown impatient. After twenty minutes of being at a standstill, he surprised the rest of the mob by reversing the Boss Gargant.

His intention soon became clear as he made a course corrections and ordered full steam ahead – directly into the back of the Gargant Facebreaker, emplaced on the bank of the river. The other gargant, unstabilised, lurched forward as klaxons wailed and steam vented, and then as the bank of the river gave way under its colossal weight, slowly but steadily toppled forward into the corrosive sludge of the River Styx.

The defenders' cheers died in their throat as Ugulmak's plan became apparent – Facebreaker might have been an effective Gargant, but its wreck made an even better bridge. Using the wreck as a fording point for the Bigmob, the Red Skull Tramplas marched across the back of their fallen comrade, trampling the rapidly-dissolving wreck underfoot.

Once in close quarters, the fight was finished. The surviving Border Defence Force threw down their weapons and fled, while the 6th only escaped by virtue of the orks slowing to butcher the fleeing Border Defence Force militia.

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Gitsmasha – krooz-missile systemi n place on the shoulder: seemingly salvaged from a Voss Prime-pattern Manticore multiple-missile launch system.
@argaastes

The Gargant above, recorded as Gitsmasha, was heavily damaged in a duel with the Legio Metalica Titan Unum (pictured below) in a delaying action to allow the shaken Imperial 6th Army to retreat across the Helsreach River to the peninsula. 

Gitsmasha was subsequently retrofitted with longer-range 'krooz missiles' (visible in place on the shoulder battery) to allow it to present a substantial long-range threat in future conflicts. This sort of field adaptation was extremely common, and destroyed Gargants were frequently cannibalised to allow the remainder to press onwards. 

Unum, Warbringer-Nemesis class Battle Titan of the Legio Metalica
@jarringwharf664

The relentless pace of the Red Skull Tramplas would see them overrun and destroy numerous Imperial forces during the war, and it was remarked as little more than luck that preserved the 6th Army at Styx Tertiary when the ork battle group that the Tramplas led crashed through the Palidus Line. 

While primarily used en-masse, later in the war, detachments of the Tramplas were deployed for particular purposes – or on the whim of a particular Kaptin and his cronies. Notably, one such detachment was involved in the assault on Hive Infernus, where they made use of their surprising turn of speed and enhanced top armour to advance safely up the Via Perditia towards Hive Infernus, pushing through the 295th Steel Legion Armoured Regiment (part of the Fighting First) as they went. 

This 'Supa-Stompa'-designate is Dregmek's Bonechompa, one of the squadron that was invovled in the assault on Hive Infernus. The retrofitted buzzsaw arm – likely scavenged from a fallen larger gargant – is typical of such mekboy-piloted smaller Gargants.
@argaastes

The surviving Tramplas then joined in the siege of the Hive Infernus Eastern Primary Defensive Bastion but took heavy losses there. 

The bulk of the Red Skull Tramplas were involved in the conflict in the south, and following the siege of Infernus, the remnants of Ugulmak’s Bigmob are believed to have retired into the Ork-controlled badlands south of the hive, beyond the Stygies River, to repair and rebuild their gargants.

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[Append-file note]

Do you have an Evil Suns Gargant that you think could feature here? Get in contact and we can update the article with a showcase of your Gargant.