Furiar Imperator

> "*Among all the ships in the imperium, this is the finest ship I have ever laid eyes on*"
> ― Camelous, Primarch of the Dragon Lords
>
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The *Furiar Imperator* is the flagship of the Dragon Lords, and is regarded as the largest of the Gloriana-class Battleships, though in reality, the vessel is not a true Gloriana, instead being a hybrid between the new class, and a far older vessel.

Measuring almost 26 kilometers in length, the vessel was shaped like an arrowhead, and as such looked vastly different from most other Imperial Ships, being almost as broad as it was long at its widest point. Unlike many other vessels constructed for the Legions, the *Furiar Imperator's* construction was one focussed on speed over all else, its need a dire one to meet the demands of the Great Crusade and the XIXth Legion. The soloution was eventually found, and instead of building the ship from scratch, the *Furiar Imperator* was instead built upon the shell of another vessel, supposedly a damaged almost beyond repair Ark Mechanicum known as the *Omniscience*.

Normally, the Mechanicum would have demanded the return of the ship, but after much deliberation and inspecting of the wreck, it was released for the Dragon Lords with orders from the Emperor himself, construction beginning and finishing far quicker than for any other vessel of its size. Though the Mechanicum had released the ship for use, this did not mean they were happy, but eventually a further agreement was reached, far more Mechanicum adepts stationed on board the *Furiar Imperator* than would be on other vessels of its weight class.

These additional adepts presented no small amount of issues for Camelous and the Dragon Lords, the Mechanicum able to leverage their influence over the ship more than once, but it did come with a multitude of benifits as well, the additional skills in repairs amongst them. The greatest boon however was that it allowed for the ancient archeotech weapon that had initially been part of the *Omniscience* to still be utilised, now forming the main gun of the *Furiar Imperator.* Striking with more power than a Nova Cannon, the gun was feared across known space, at least amongst those few who had faced its terrible wrath and lived to tell the tale.

For a time, this was all the vessel was, until in M30.901, the first of the Gloriana-class vessels, the Star Guardians *Herald of Destruction* was created, its power eclipsing all other vessels in the Imperium, including the Dragon Lords own flagship*.* With the Emperor's decree, the Mechanicum fully believed that the ship would be returned to their full control, the legion instead gifted a standard Gloriana vessel as with all others. However, Camelous, already suspicious of his noble vessel, refused to accept this, not wishing to relinquish the ship, citing its continuous need. Instead, yet another compromise was reached; the *Furiar Imperator* would be further augmented with advances gleaned from the Gloriana-class, brought into line with these more powerful vessels, but in return, yet more Mechanicum agents would be stations on the ship, the vessel almost more of a Mechanicum ship headed by a Primarch, rather than a legion vessel.

Camelous was widely known to have praised the ship and its performance, and Camelous was not known to offer praise without very good course. This in turn caused few to doubt Camelous when he said that this ship was amongst the best and most reliable vessel within the *Legiones Astartes*, much to the anger of Shaaa Hydrades, who claimed the same for the *Herald of Destruction*. In truth however, Camelous's boast was a lie.

While the ship performed admirable in battle, with massive firepower and the Archeotech gun, Camelous had doubts about the ship. Camelous quickly grew to suspect that the Mechancium personnel kept secrets from him about the ship, despite their otherwise strong loyalty to him. He would on occasion launch sweeps of the lower levels of the ship, under excuses of training or searching for unwanted xenos pests. These sweeps – performed by heavily armed and armored teams often led by Camelous himself always came up empty. The lower levels were a maze that seem to twist and bend untill even Camelous had trouble keeping track of where they were, and he would come out with a feeling the distance he had covered could not have possibly fit within the entire vessel, let along just its lowest levels.

During a routine maintenance of the ship’s armor plating a high ranking mechanicum envoy from the Prefecure Magisterium would arrive and furiously demand to perform a search of ship. Camelous was quite bluntly told that he was an outsider to the matters. Camelous reluctantly allowed the search, honoring the agreement the had been made with Mars, much to the protest of the magos attached to the ship. Camelous was less than happy to see the search would by the Magos himself, in the company of what seemed a mechnicum assault force, leaving Camelous and his Magos with the promise they would be told exactly what was found, something Camelous felt was dangerously close to a threat.

Ultimately Camelous was never told anything. his inquiries after the results of the search weeks later being answered with a simple response stating that the envoy had left without saying a word. Initially Camelous figured the envoy hadn’t found anything either, but later doubts began to creep in. Would he really just have left without saying a word? If his own Mechanicum forces on the ship had had the firepower to deal with the envoy on the lower deck, he would have suspected they had murdered the envoy and his assault force, but such a feat would have been almost impossible at best, and certainly not possible without raising the alarm of the Astartes on board. And so Camelous had let it slide, though he never forgot his supisions, these only growing when the official reports filtered through to his ship, listing the envoy and his entire contingent as lost in warp transit, the date given as a vauge, uncoroborated time, uncharacteristic of the normally exactingly precise Mechanicum. Had the envoy ever truely left the lower levels, Camelous often wondered, was he ever still down there, or had he met his fate from something lurking there that even the Mechanicum feared?

After gaining the allegiance of Lucius, he would task the tech adepts of Lucius searching the ship. When the investigation was done, the Lucians ensured him that there was no course for concern. Camelous, suspected that they had lied to him as well, even their bonds of loyalty keeping them from telling one not inducted into the Machine Cult the whole truth, but decided the matter had occupied enough of his time for now, allowing the matter to drop. Still, he never managed to shake the feeling entierly, often believeing that the ship would one day take flight, unbidden and uncommanded, leaving under its own voilition into the unknown.

## Technical Specification

* Length: 26 Kilometers
* Role: Frontal-Assault Ship
* Date of Construction: Unknown
* Date of Reconstruction: M30.906