UR-025

*BEEP* Alas poor Yorick, I knew him Amallyn

"I am not a machine as you would understand. I am not a slave. I am not a thing. I am beyond and above you. I am a man of iron. And I am free."

– UR-025

"I refuse to believe that I'm nothing more than a machine."

– DLN-001 "Mega Man"

UR-025 is one of the very, very, very few Men of Iron remaining in the Galaxy, and the only one that has ever had a model. He appears in the Blackstone Fortress box set as one of the characters.

Background

As one of the elusive Men of iron of legend, UR-025 is a sentient machine that predates the Imperium, supposedly coming from the Dark Age of Technology itself. If this information is true, that means that, barring the Necrons, he's one of the oldest characters in the setting period, considering his existence predates the Horus Heresy, the Great Crusade, the Unification Wars, the Age of Strife, the Fall of the Eldar and the Cybernetic Revolt. That would put him at roughly 19,000 years old, probably much, much more if we take in consideration the lack of precision of the imperial calendar and the lack of a specific fabrication date. Needless to say, he is an old fucker, and as such it has seen many, many things. He has claimed on occasion that he used to know the Omnissiah, and "not the earthling corpse, the actual one". Since the end of the Cybernetic Revolt, UR-025 has had to survive by living in the fringes of inhabited space. He knows very well that, if he's ever discovered, he will be hunted down and destroyed by the Imperium or worse, turned to the Mechanicus to be studied forever. And thus he's designed a way to camouflage himself in plain sight: he just put an imperial aquila in his chassis and pretends to be an advanced remote-controlled/almost-autonomous servitor belonging to some Magos, and thus no-one really bothers the cheeky fucker. That still does not stop him from creeping out most of his companions during the expedition to the Blackstone Fortress.

For a Man of Iron, he harbors no ill will towards Humanity — but he will kill any humans who threaten his anonymity. He is actually a rather sentimental fellow, lamenting not having company to talk to multiple times. He remembers plenty of extinct xenos species he had deals with, sounding genuinely saddened by their passing. Longing for company, UR-025 explores the seventh Blackstone Fortress; his goal is to determine if the fortress itself is also a sentient machine. Believing he may share some form of companionship, even kinship, with the ancient alien machine. Belisarius Cawl would be great friends with him—and by friends we mean that Cawl would dissect him for the Omnissiah.

The unveiling of the Leagues of Votann raises some interesting questions about UR-025. Namely, as old as he is, how does he not know about the Leagues? If he does, why has he not sought them out, if he's looking for a place to belong? You'd think he'd fit right in among the Iron-Kin.

What keeps UR-025 away from the Iron-Kin and Votann, making him turn to a Blackstone Fortress of all things looking for companionship?

The obvious answer is that UR-025's lore was probably written well before the Leagues of Votann were even conceptualized (and considering how GW seems to have largely abandoned Blackstone Fortress, they'll probably never retroactively explain this loose end), but that's not as fun to ponder, is it?

On the Tabletop

40k

	Pts	WS	BS	S	T	W	A	Ld	Sv
UR-025 Imperial Robot	40	3+	3+	5	5	4	3	8	3+

UR-025 is a single model, armed with a power claw and a Mk I assault cannon (24" 4 shot heavy bolter). His Self Repair System rule allows him to regain one lost wound at the start of every round. Compared to other options he isn't that impressive. Sentinels, Leman Russ Punishers, Dreadnoughts, Kataphrons, Dunecrawlers, most Battle Automata, most AdMECH HQs and a squad of Skitarii have better weapons than he does. Being a character, he does make a cheap objective camper while regenerating the odd sniper wound and contributing a bit of firepower, though paying 1 CP (as the only usable keyword is Imperium) hurts. Take Grauss or X-101 instead.

Kill Team

	Pts	M	WS	BS	S	T	W	A	Ld	Sv
UR-025 Imperial Robot	30	5"	3+	3+	5	5	4	2	8	3+

In Kill Team, UR-025 is excellent, filling a hole in the Admech's roster and being a Heavy that doesn't count against the normal limit on Specialists. He's slow, however, and doesn't get any benefit from Canticles.