Helm Mechanicum
The Helm Mechanicum, also referred to as Helm Mechanicus,[2a] is a device used by Imperial Knight Armigers.[1]
Description
The Helm Mechanicum is essentially a scaled down version of the more prestigious Throne Mechanicum. Placed upon the head and connected via pre-frontal sockets to the pilot’s cerebrum, these machines do not require a full Becoming ritual in order for neural interfacing to be successful. For this reason, the prestige of piloting an Armiger is significantly less than that attached to sitting a fully fledged Throne Mechanicum. This is compounded by the fact that, while Armigers can operate independently, it is traditional for their Helms Mechanicum to be neurally slaved to the command impulses of a larger Knight, rendering them subordinate. To accept such mental serfdom is to possess the rank of Bondsman, and while this is certainly no mark of dishonour, it is far from glorious. It is for these reasons that the piloting of Armigers falls to those from the lower social strata of the Noble houses.[1]
Experience
When put on or removed, the needles of the Helm Mechanicus will enter or exit the wear's skull.[2a] The wearer of a Helm Mechanicus can feel an invasive pressure on their skull while bearing worn, as well as a sense of immense strength and weight in their limbs.[2b]
Pilots using a Helm Mechanicum also suffer the same psychostigmatic feedback that is experienced when one uses a Throne Mechanicum.[2a] The Helm Mechanicus translates every impact and wound to the pilot's mind. Pilot and war machine suffered together – the price to be paid for the purity of action a Knight could harness.[2e] For example, if a knight's mechanised limb is severed, the pilot's own respective limb might break in the same location,[2f] or if a plasma blast hits a knight it will be felt as an intense burst of heat and sensation of burning through muscle and bone in the same location of the pilot's body.[2d]
Sources
