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Sicarian Ruststalkers are elite Skitarii, rebuilt for close combat and swift movement. They are tall and thin, with elongated limbs that let them cross the battlefield quickly. Their weapons are transonic blades and razors that vibrate at a frequency that cuts through armour.
Imperial Guardsmen call them "shivs", because of the shivering and blurring appearance of their weapons. Ruststalkers are led by a Princeps, who carries a chordclaw that can tear an enemy apart from the inside.
Ruststalkers were first built as cybernetic assassins to hunt feral servitors and outcasts in the wastes of Mars. They were so effective that their manufacture spread to every forge world, and they now fight on the front line of the Mechanicus' wars. Like all Sicarians, they are built from the shattered remains of fallen Skitarii. The transformation unravels their psychological stability and leaves them with a bitter lust for murder.
Ruststalkers are often drawn from the Skitarii who recovered worst from their rebuilding: desperate souls grateful to be allowed to unleash their rage for the Machine God. Their bodies are protected by an alloy known informally as aegium, which absorbs the energy of incoming attacks and spreads it harmlessly through their frames. Some clades from Stygies VIII, such as the Crimson Blades and the Skullmarks, appear to have gone rogue. They wear unusual markings and turn up unbidden among other legions summoned to battle.
Appearance & wargear
Ruststalkers are tall, armoured cyborgs with mask-like helms, long backward-bent legs and arms that end in transonic blades or razors. The Princeps may carry a chordclaw.
Ruststalkers are stick-thin, metal-legged killers. They carry transonic razors, chordclaws or paired transonic blades. Astra Militarum troopers call them 'shivs' because their weapons seem to shiver and blur.
Ruststalkers have long, stalking limbs and blank, domed heads, and carry transonic razors and blades or chordclaws. A prehensile dataspike on a tail-like mechadendrite can steal an enemy machine's secrets within heartbeats.
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Battlefield role & tactics
Ruststalkers are close-combat assassins who strike enemy elites and characters at speed.
Ruststalkers dart across the battlefield and fall on their prey in a slashing frenzy. Transonic weapons hum with a sick vibration. Their first strokes bounce off armour while the blade 'listens' for the material's resonant frequency. Then, a heartbeat later, the armour and the warrior inside fly apart. They are fast close-combat hunters, best used to cut down elite infantry and characters.
Transonic blades sweep through frequencies until they match the exact molecular frequency of their target's armour and pass through it. Ruststalkers are fast melee hunters who use their mobility to reach enemy characters, heavy infantry and isolated units. They work especially well alongside Infiltrators, whose aura weakens defenders.
Notable battles & users
- Many Mechanicus campaigns: Ruststalkers form the killer elite of the Skitarii.
- Clade R2-111: during the Ork invasion of Ryza by Waaagh! Rarguts, this Ruststalker unit attacked during the acid rain season and became the unit the Orks feared most.
- Stygies VIII clades such as the 'Crimson Blades' and 'Skullmarks' became infamous among their enemies.
Related
No profiled character is closely tied to this unit type yet.
