Rok

Orks Portal

Roks in descent^[5]

A Rok is a form of spaceship used by the Orks, basically a large hollowed out asteroid fitted with guns, engines, guns, targeting systems and some more guns. Roks are incapable of warp travel and are used to drift from one world to another within a system.^[1]

Roks control their descent by random discharges of modified force fields, reversing polarity charges at the molecular level. It is unknown if this technology was developed by the Orks themselves or simply looted from other sources. This force field, in combination with modified traktor beams, produces a pressure bow-wave extending for over 420 kilometres and a temperature of over 159 degrees above the surface mean during the descent operation, boiling the ground beneath the Rok up to ten metres deep and coating it in a silicon-based layer. This silicon-bases layer provides additional stability for the rock, at least until its support structures, consisting of thousands of automatically adjusting spike-tipped anchors, are deployed, allowing the Rok to disperse its cargo by a series of hydraulic ramps.^[9]

Roks can transport vast numbers of infantry, large vehicles and even gargants, with one example deploying at least eight and perhaps carrying as many as seventeen more. This Rok was also armed with massive weapons arrays, featuring missile launchers, las-cannons and other large scale weapons.^[9]

It is known that any system containing Orks will quickly gather a large number of Roks as they are "built" at a startling rate. Roks come in a variety of classifications, such as standard Roks, larger Big Roks, and massive Mega Roks.^[8]

Notable Encounters

Notable engagements against Roks include:

• During the War of the Beast, the Orks employed several planetoid-sized Roks known as Attack Moons.^[7]

• An encounter in the Kaloth system in 147.M41 when an Imperial cruiser force swept the region for pirates, leading to the destruction of seven enemy escort class ships, along with four Roks.^[2] Later in 148.M41, twenty-one Roks were encountered by another expedition in the same system but were forced to disengage after the battlecruiser Stalwart Warrior suffered crippling damage in the battle, that nearly led to it being overwhelmed by Ork boarding parties.^[2]

• 886.M41, the Black Templars Fortress-monastery on the planet Solemnus, is attacked by an Ork armada from the Blood Scar tribe. Withstanding an initial orbital bombardment, thanks to the fortress' shield generators, the fortress finally falls after a Rok crash lands near the fortress and fired its weapons at point-blank range. The fortress' shields are overloaded and collapse, allowing the Orks to invade and massacre the Black Templars within the keep.^[6]

• In 997 or 998.M41, shortly before the outbreak of the Third War for Armageddon, Ghazghkull Thraka sent seventeen Roks on a collision course with the Imperial World Palmeros, forcing a hasty evacuation of the Imperial Guard Army Group Exolon^[3a]. Most of the Army Group managed to escape the planet, but the majority of the planet's several billion civilians did not^[3b].

• Dakkaplanet, created under the direction of Uzgul the Magnificent of the Badskab Bukkaneer Freebooters in the Ork's campaign against Craftworld Ilmaren and the Starsplinter Corsairs.^[10]

Images

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  Roks^[5]

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  Roks^[8]

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  Big Roks^[8]

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  Mega Roks^[8]

Sources

• 1: Codex: Orks (4th Edition), pg. 18
• 2: Battlefleet Gothic Resources: Xenos Fleets, pg. 63
• 3: Mercy Run (Short Story) — Hammer of the Emperor (Omnibus):
  • 3a: pg. 17
  • 3b: pg. 16
• 4: Warhammer 40,000 5th Edition Rulebook, pg. 162
• 5: Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine collectors edition artbook
• 6: Crusade for Armageddon (Novel), Prologue, pgs. 20–21
• 7: Predator, Prey (Novel) Chapter 1
• 8: Battlefleet Gothic Armada 2
• 9: The Battle for Armageddon (Background Book), pgs. 80-81
• 10: Voidscarred (Novel), Chapter 6