Skorpius Dunerider

Sacred Hover-Carriage of the Cohort

The Skorpius Dunerider is the troop-carrying counterpart to the Disintegrator, sharing the same anti-gravitic chassis but trading the Belleros lance for an open-sided armoured transport bay capable of carrying ten Skitarii or Sicarian operatives. Its hover propulsion lets it skim over rubble, watercourses and mine-fields that would entrap any wheeled or tracked APC, delivering its passengers across the most fractured forge-world battlefields without a single jolt to their delicate cybernetic augmetics. Each transport bay is consecrated as a small mobile shrine, its interior etched with binary catechisms that the embarked cohort recites as a low choir during transit. Duneriders typically operate in coordinated wings of two or three, screening Disintegrators or carrying assault Skitarii into close range of [[astra-militarum]] objectives. Their twin Cognis heavy stubbers provide self-defence fire, while a top-mounted broad-spectrum data-tether acts as a relay station, knitting the hover-column's MIU dataloom together with sister formations across the battle-line. Veteran Tech-priest Enginseers consider the gentle hum of a passing Dunerider squadron one of the holiest sounds in the Mechanicus liturgy — a moving organ of war.