Dreadnoughts are machines constructed to be both walking tombs and mobile battle stations for a mortally wounded Space Marine.
Generally if a Space Marine has provided exceptional service to his chapter and is seriously wounded the chapter may elect to bestow upon that Space Marine the honor of continuing to serve the chapter in the form of a Dreadnought.
This is considered a great honor and Dreadnoughts are feared and respected for the extensive combat experience and expertise they can provide to the chapter, having honed their skills through both life and death.
The interred Space Marine is housed within what is known as the Sarcophagus within the Dreadnought, which is basically a giant life support system keeping what is left (it might not be much) of that Space Marine functional and connected to the rest of the machine. The space marine literally becomes one with Dreadnought
When Dreadnoughts are not needed in battle or for other duties such as advising its chapter on issues related to its expertise, Dreadnoughts are typically left to sleep away the years, decades or even centuries until they are needed again....
The above picture depicts a Dreadnought from the Black Templar Space Marine Chapter tearing apart a Chaos Space Marine and holding the rest back with its Auto Cannon. The bottom picture is a Dreadnought holding of a group of Tyranids with an Auto Cannon and a Claw.
It should be noted that although these two dreadnoughts have very similar weaponry dreadnoughts can be outfitted with all sorts of members ranging from heavy flamers to laser cannons, extra armor and the list goes on.
In my next couple of post i am going to take the Dreadnought further and look at the various load outs chapters employ to their Dreadnoughts and how they fit in with the Codex and the various chapters methods, as well as venerable dreadnoughts.
