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For Space Marine gear, I mean. There was what, 120.000+ SM casualties there? All either loyal, or, in case of all traitor legions save for Word Bearers (who didn't even take part in HH yet), untainted yet?

Yes, yes, most of it would be damaged but you're not telling me you can't take two suits with two kill shot holes each, make one new suit and one with two holes, send damaged one to Forge World for repairs, then enjoy free one. Might this be mysterious source from which Minotaurs, Red Scorpions and other FW pet chapters take their endless supply of seemingly 'new' old marks of SM armour?

There is war materiel for 100+ chapters there, so why not loot it? From various canon depictions of Isstvan III, it seems it was left mostly intact with superficial looting by traitors (who had to move to Isstvan V, then start their campaign and had little time for through sifting), indeed, Isstvan is mostly abandoned in Legion of One many months later. Was there any mention of the system after that?

The virus bombs used actually ate through bunkers and vehicles.

We're talking about a world scoured clean of life and everything. You're not scavenging anything.

There's also the stigma of it being the site of the first real act of betrayal from the traitors and the mark of the beginning of the Heresy, making it very likely that it was scrubbed from history on the Imperial side with it being destroyed or earmarked as a no-go zone.

Because the traitors harvested all the material after the battle, mechanicum machines essentially hoovered up all the kit, it's in one of the short stories, can't remember which.

To quote the classic armour fluff article by Rick Priestly:
"With the Mk 4 newly in service, the need for large amounts of Mk 4 spares had not been anticipated, resulting in suits rapidly becoming unusable due to even quite minor battle damage."

Power armour isn't a hunk of metal. It's a finely oiled precision machine with dozens of sensitive systems that all need a constant flow of spare parts to keep functioning. Something like half the loyalists survived the virus bombing and early battles that followed, then had to endure two months of constant brutal urban fighting with no source for spares but the dead. The atmospherics also made it difficult for the traitors to bring in supplies as well. I honestly don't think there'd be much in the way of useful gear left by the time the battle was over.

 Gashrog wrote:
I honestly don't think there'd be much in the way of useful gear left by the time the battle was over.

Aye. And the Practical Marines of an earlier age probably also scoured it for WMDs (and other useful stuff) a few times after the fact.

And no 40K Chapter is going to think the wargear of those killed there - any still left that is - brings anything but bad luck.

Anything of any value would of been gathered after the battle, anything remaining stripped over time. At this point anything left was sealed in a buried bunker or somthing.

Plus sites history and all. Everyone knows what went on there and salavgers likely searched it many times.

I mean, post virus bombing, then the bombs to ignite the natural gases then the mechanicum hoovering up Istvaan 3, I can't imagine there's a lot left.

Scorched earth was the book, with the salamanders looking for vulkan im sure.

I haven't read a huge amount of the fluff, just the first couple HH books, but we're also talking ~10,000 years of time here. If anyone in M41 is looking for something there, it corroded into dust a long time ago.

 Finnegan_Bojangles wrote:
I haven't read a huge amount of the fluff, just the first couple HH books, but we're also talking ~10,000 years of time here. If anyone in M41 is looking for something there, it corroded into dust a long time ago.

Exactly much this. Objects don't survive for 10,000 years if they aren't being constantly cared for. Even if there had not been a virus bombing, if someone were to go to Isstvan III in M41, there would be nothing there but dust. Even structures like bunkers and such that may have survived the virus bombing will have crumbled into tiny bits of rubble. Time destroys absolutely everything.

 Kanluwen wrote:
The virus bombs used actually ate through bunkers and vehicles.

We're talking about a world scoured clean of life and everything. You're not scavenging anything.

That's actually incorrect - the virus bombs ate through neither bunkers or vehicles. In galaxy in flames (I think), it details the battle for istvan III, and many loyalist marines took cover from the virus bombing in bunkers, and there was a titan on the surface that survived the virus bombing (and following firestorm). Virus bombs are only useful against organic material.

There were enough marines that survived the virus bombing that horus and pals had to send down traitor marines to finish off the loyal ones, and there were enough loyalist ones to put up a determined resistance for a time.

Honestly, it's not at all inconceivable that there would be leftover usable materiel at the time, though most of it would be so old at this point to be pretty much useless.

Istvaan 5 would have been a much better haul. But Im pretty sure the traitors did hoover up almost all of the gear there with the RG/Corax cannibalising whatever they could until they got off world.

Yep, checked so after the traitors moved on the mechanicum landed massive crawlers on istvaan and scooped up all the bodies and equipment for re use and recycling, there may be some bits and bobs left but the vast majority of materials are gone.

 Kap'n Krump wrote:

 Kanluwen wrote:
The virus bombs used actually ate through bunkers and vehicles.

We're talking about a world scoured clean of life and everything. You're not scavenging anything.

That's actually incorrect - the virus bombs ate through neither bunkers or vehicles. In galaxy in flames (I think), it details the battle for istvan III, and many loyalist marines took cover from the virus bombing in bunkers, and there was a titan on the surface that survived the virus bombing (and following firestorm). Virus bombs are only useful against organic material.

There were enough marines that survived the virus bombing that horus and pals had to send down traitor marines to finish off the loyal ones, and there were enough loyalist ones to put up a determined resistance for a time.

Honestly, it's not at all inconceivable that there would be leftover usable materiel at the time, though most of it would be so old at this point to be pretty much useless.

At least someone knows their stuff. Was the Dies Irae, I think. Which ended up on Terra.
Pretty sure theres a hanger with a ancient dread in it somewhere.

the ancient wrote:

 Kap'n Krump wrote:

 Kanluwen wrote:
The virus bombs used actually ate through bunkers and vehicles.

We're talking about a world scoured clean of life and everything. You're not scavenging anything.

That's actually incorrect - the virus bombs ate through neither bunkers or vehicles. In galaxy in flames (I think), it details the battle for istvan III, and many loyalist marines took cover from the virus bombing in bunkers, and there was a titan on the surface that survived the virus bombing (and following firestorm). Virus bombs are only useful against organic material.

There were enough marines that survived the virus bombing that horus and pals had to send down traitor marines to finish off the loyal ones, and there were enough loyalist ones to put up a determined resistance for a time.

Honestly, it's not at all inconceivable that there would be leftover usable materiel at the time, though most of it would be so old at this point to be pretty much useless.

At least someone knows their stuff. Was the Dies Irae, I think. Which ended up on Terra.
Pretty sure theres a hanger with a ancient dread in it somewhere.

Maybe, but the dread is likely so long left, and so old many of its systems will have decayed. Some items work from then, but theyhave been maintained armoury, stasis and other things that vastly prolong useful life.

yes, it was one of first into the breach of the palace walls. It gained infamy there. It was destroyed in battle during storm of iron in 13th black crusade.

Well Ancient Rylanor, Theres a thread here somewhere. was a loyalist EC dread, who went to check out some strange hanger, in the depths of Istvaan. Officially dead (story forgotten) according to GW. But uno.
But the point was they exterminatuseses?, firebombed the world.
Titan, battened down the hatches. Survived.
Assorted Marines. Survived.
Dreadnought disappeared into the bowls of the earth. No survive.
Mystery hanger. Forgotten.
Magical mechanicum wander bots. aok.

 Irbis wrote:
For Space Marine gear, I mean. There was what, 120.000+ SM casualties there? All either loyal, or, in case of all traitor legions save for Word Bearers (who didn't even take part in HH yet), untainted yet?

Yes, yes, most of it would be damaged but you're not telling me you can't take two suits with two kill shot holes each, make one new suit and one with two holes, send damaged one to Forge World for repairs, then enjoy free one. Might this be mysterious source from which Minotaurs, Red Scorpions and other FW pet chapters take their endless supply of seemingly 'new' old marks of SM armour?

There is war materiel for 100+ chapters there, so why not loot it? From various canon depictions of Isstvan III, it seems it was left mostly intact with superficial looting by traitors (who had to move to Isstvan V, then start their campaign and had little time for through sifting), indeed, Isstvan is mostly abandoned in Legion of One many months later. Was there any mention of the system after that?

Time has probably degraded a lot of what wasn't already picked through, if anything at all was left over/overlooked. And because of the planet's place in the history of the Horus Heresy, the Inquisition probably has a Perditas declaration slapped on it, and classed as a Forbidden/Quarantined World by the Administratum (if not outright struck from the records). However, the Isstvaan System's planets don't appear on the canon list of known Forbidden Worlds. Istvaan III and V are simply classified as Dead Worlds.


In the case of Istvaan V, worry of some taint of the Ruinous Powers likely still remains, since there was a Chaos presence on the planet some time after Horus's defeat and the Great Scouring.