The Achilles Ridgerunner is a light, agile prospecting vehicle pressed into the service of the brood, a machine built to survive the deadliest frontier environments an Imperial world can offer. In its intended role its crews scan the wastes for promising mineral deposits and relay the coordinates back to base, and it is exactly this air of legitimacy that makes it so valuable to a cult that must move unseen.
For the brood, however, the Ridgerunner's true worth lies in reconnaissance of a darker kind. It roves far ahead of the cult's main strength, its pilots reading the ground for ambush sites, hidden approaches and routes of ingress into enemy territory, feeding that intelligence back so the uprising can strike where it is least expected. Where the Atalan Jackals hunt, a Ridgerunner is often close at hand, extending the pack's reach and lending it the weight of mounted heavy weaponry.
Though lightly built, the Ridgerunner bristles with salvaged and jury-rigged armaments, from heavy mining lasers to seismic cannon, and its speed lets it choose its engagements and break off at will. It is the perfect machine for a force that fights by stealth and surprise, a scout, a pathfinder and a raider all in one rattling, dust-caked hull.
Order of battle
