Macro-Hauler
Macro-Haulers are huge multi-wheeled or tracked vehicle transports that disperse cargoes and perishables in many of the Imperium's Hive cities, which are honeycombed with vast and labyrinthine networks of roadways, overpasses, and transit tunnels known as arteria. These are weird vehicles as their technicality makes them more in common with a Squat Mammoth-class Land Train than a conventional railway vehicle like the Titan Train. For their real-life counterpart, see here:
- Height: 30m
- Length: 100-700m
- Mass: 24-150 kilotonnes; approx
- Crew: 5 crew including 6 gunners
- Max Speed: 35kph
Overview[edit]
First mentioned in the Dark Heresy Apocrypha: Vehicles & Riding Beasts, these transport vehicles are tens of metres tall and a hundred or more long with the largest being around 30 meters tall and seven hundred meters long depending on the configuration. They also look like conveyance warehouses on the move; they more than deserve their common nickname of "thunderers".
Macro Haulers are made in many different variants but all can be fit into one of two major categories: The Intra Hauler which service the major traffic routes (arteries) inside the hives and Inter Hauler - which service the routes between the hives.
Some even act as mobile processing facilities while others are said to never stop — their containers are unloaded on the move. Some Macro-Haulers are further outfitted for hazardous duty to operate in polluted wastelands and have sealed compartments with life-support or air filtration systems and airlocks as a standard.
They are also uncommonly powerful, and come heavily armed and armoured, capable of carrying six gunners manning heavy weapons, which makes them more than capable of defending themselves from the jack-crews that can infest the lawless regions of a Hive's arteria network.