Pantheon Eternal

During his long period of absence from the galaxy, Shaaa’s time on Mars was taken up by multiple projects, each designed to further the Imperium against the force of the Traitors, to allow it to once more stand as rulers of all it surveyed. From the Primaris Project to attempting to find any scrap of information to bolster the Golden Throne, Shaaa had little time for anything his own mind may have desired. That time he did have however, went into the Pantheon Eternal.

When Shaaa finally returned to the galaxy at large, he quickly established his own forge complex upon the surface of Holy Mars, none upon the red planet seeking to bar the Avatar of the Unmaker God’s wishes. Few ever entered the inner sanctums of that hallowed place, but those that did would have found themselves in a large circular chamber, twenty alcoves cut into its sides, resembling the cog of the motive force. In each of these alcoves stood a single mighty frame, similar to the Dreadnoughts of the Astartes, but to compare the two would be akin to comparing a babe in arms to a warrior of the Adeptus Custodes.

Each of these mighty machines were unique, all expertly wrought by Shaaa’s own hands over the course of ten thousand years, with even the smallest of their number standing a head higher than the Telemon dreadnoughts of the Custodes, the Redemptor Dreadnoughts of the Primaris, or the Olympian Dreadnought of his own sons. Upon closer inspection, the parallels between the Pantheon of Dreadnoughts, and the ancient Pantheon of Primarchs became all too clear, the purpose however remaining unknown, the fate of over half of the pantheon rendering such machines useless at best, or at worst, an aid to the enemy. Whenever any have made it that far however, and is brave enough to pose question, the response is always the same.

[Explanation]: The good deeds a man carries out does not scrub out the bad, but nor does the bad scrub out the good. [Conclusion]: I will forever remember my brothers as they were, when our family was whole, when we were each one of twenty one. [Statement]: No matter their crimes, or the punishment they must face, they have always and will always be my brothers, and I shall forever be one of twenty one.

## The Protean-class Dreadnoughts

While the other Dreadnoughts in the Pantheon Eternal specialise in a specific facet of warfare, the Protean-class was designed to be able to adapt to any situation, and combat any foe. Boasting heavy motive unit to allow for explosive bursts of short speeds, as well as an enhanced energy shield to compensate for the thinner armour, the dreadnought was capable of both great feats of speed and agility, while also being able to stand its ground, ensuring none could hope to challenge it.

On the offence, the dreadnought carried a pair of weapons, a crackling energy whip sword, and a large bore autocannon, its multi-feed ammunition hopper allowing different types of ammunition to be unleashed as the situation changes. The whip blade was not a traditionally imperial weapon, a high strength cable running through the blade, while both delivered the power to the weapon, and held the individual parts of the blade together. With a thought, this cable could be loosened, allowing the parts of the blade to become fluid, able to curve around any defence and strike at the foe behind it. With another thought, the cable could be pulled tight again, creating a single solid blade that could turn aside even the roaring chainblade of a Knight.

## The Viral-class Dreadnought

One of the heavier classes of dreadnoughts, the Viral-class is designed for a slow, plodding advance, kept safe behind not just thick armour, but a projected shield that can filter the very air around it, keeping those within its protective dome safe even as those outside are cut down by airborne toxins.

The Viral-class is by no means only a bastion of retreat however, and boasts a trio of weapons to bring death to its foes. A pair of heavy chem-throwers are secured beneath its carapace, while its arms end in two giant fists, capable of pulverising baneblades, as well as having secondary chem throwers within each palm. Finally, the Viral-class contains a compact but efficient micro-refinery within its shell, allowing the occupant to create new chemicals on the fly, ensuring the billowing clouds of death it emits are tailored to the current foe.

## The Hunter-class Dreadnought

One of the fastest of the Pantheon, the Hunter-class is designed for a single goal, unrelenting and deadly ambushes. Armour has been stripped back in favour of speed, while it’s reactor has been specially modified to be able to run at idle with no difficulty, keeping the occupant alive but little more, and making the dreadnought all but invisible. When combined with the Cameleoline coating on its shell, the Hunter class is all but invisible when it wishes to be, the perfect hunter awaiting its prey.

When its prey appears, this stillness is shattered as the Hunter blurs into motion. Its power plant is capable of bringing the entire vehicle from idle to full power in 1.753 standard seconds, its energy field bursting into life with a blinding flash. Equipped with a tri-barreled chain-cannon on one hand and a devastating plasma lance in the other, the Hunter-class is able to unleash a hail of bullets in short order, scything down foes before its lance delivers a single killing blow, and the dreadnought retreats to wait in ambush once more.

## The Artificer-class Dreadnought

The largest of all the Pantheon, the Artificer-class Dreadnought is a pure support platform, specialising in heavy firepower and battlefield repairs, but as such lacks much in terms of dedicated melee weapons, forced to relying on its own bulk or its artificer tools if an enemy ever closed the gap. Standing tall atop heavy set, clawed legs, the Artificer is able to dig in, deploying large spikes from its ankles to anchor it in place, and allow it to unleash its barrage of firepower. At other times, the Artificer may stride forward, innumerable servo arms and cutters snaking out from sliding panels to make whole what has been sundered.

Bearing the heaviest armaments of any of the Pantheon, the Artificer has two gargantuan laser destroyer in place of arms, capable of laying waste to even the heaviest of vehicles, while upon its back it mounts a pneumatically-driven, six-barreled rotary auto-weapon that fires heavy calibre rounds, specifically designed to overwhelm enemy energy shields with weight of fire, allowing the lasers to deliver a killing blow.

## The Lantern-class Dreadnought

Designed to lead the way for Imperial forces, the Lantern-class is amongst the fastest of the Pantheon, as well as boasting medium class armour, far more than the other fast dreadnoughts. However, to compensate for this the weaponry has had to be reduced for weight reasons. Bolstered by grav-plates, the dreadnought is capable of moving at phenomenal speeds, and even hovering for extended periods of time, allowing it to pass over otherwise impassable terrain.

Offensively, the Lantern boasts a thin but deadly powered cutlass type weapon, the curved blade held in a fist rather than built in, allowing the dreadnought to fight as if it were still mortal, while its other fist is replaced by a large sonic blaster, capable of weaponizing sound waves into deadly concussive barrages that make a mockery of cover, allowing the Lantern to scour the battlefield of emplaced weapons with ease in advance of Imperial forces.

## The Spirit-class Dreadnought

Second only to the Artificer-class in weight and armour, the Spirit-class dreadnought is more than capable of holding its own both in close combat or at range, a storm cannon array build into the knuckles of a dreadnought fist weapon at the end of both hands, but for all this, the Spirit-class is not a brawler, but a thinker, possessing advanced sensor arrays and motive units to allow for near perfect command of a battegroup even at high speed, its speed able to keep pace with armoured assault groups, providing a commander in the thick of the fighting to direct the vehicular charges.

## The Brawler-class Dreadnought

Like the Mountain, the Brawler is designed to excel at melee combat. While the Mountain is made to dish out and deal heavy amounts of damage to slow targets, the Brawler is designed to eviscerate infantry and lightly armoured targets, while being all but impervious to infantry grade weaponry.

Mounting a large frag launcher array upon its back, the Brawler is made to storm forwards heedless of the enemy’s attempts to stop it, advancing through the explosions of its fired munitions. When it reaches the enemy, vast powered talons roar into life, their deadly edges cutting through flesh and armour with equal ease, turning the Brawler into a whirling mass of razor sharp edges and eviscerated corpses.

## The Ichor-class Dreadnought

While most of the other pantheon walkers are bulky creations of armour and weaponry, the Ichor-class is tall and gaunt, only the Gallipot-class matching it in either of these regards. However, while the Gallipot is designed for support, the Ichor is designed for similar operations as the Hunter, evisceration of a single target before retreating into the shadows once more.

Clad in black plates, and boasting a sophisticated grav-chute that allows it to drop from orbit onto the enemy, the Ichor is equipped with a pair of weapons, a spear, and a chemical thrower. The spear is hollow and razor sharp, able to pierce all known infantry grade armour, before draining the target of its life-giving blood in a matter of seconds. Rather than being wasted however, this crimson liquid is then super-heated over the dreadnoughts power pack, before being belched forth from the dreadnoughts cannon, melting the flesh off any unfortunate enough to be caught in its way.

## The Desolate-class Dreadnought

From the outside, the Desolate-class looks as if it is the prototype from which all the other forms were developed, baring little in the way of deviations from the standard pattern, looking instead similar to a bulked up contemptor dreadnought. The only thing the belies this however, is the helmet that takes pride of place upon its carapace, drawing the eye to it, even as it hurts to look upon.

Its armaments are standardised, a pair of close combat fists with compact volkite beamers within the palms, but it is the helmet that contains the machines true powers. Designed for use with an untouchable pilot, the Desolate-class’s helmet contains a technology derived from the Animus Speculum of the Culexus Temple. However, the potency of this device is unparalleled, and when it turns its baleful eye upon a psychically active target, there is nothing, save distance, that can stop the impending doom, armour and shielding being no defence against such baleful energies.

## The Gallipot-class Dreadnought

The second of the support styled pantheon machines, the Gallipot is as tall and gaunt as the Ichor-class, and while it is designed for healing, it is more than capable of bringing death to any organic foe that comes within its range. Its true power however comes not in its dealing of death, but its preservation of life. Boasting a plethora of servo arms, each one can stabilise humans and astartes alike, allowing the dreadnought to provide overwatch fire with the assault cannon it carries in one hand, while simultaneously tending to the wounded with the other, able to split its attention perfectly between the two diametrically opposed tasks.

## The Duality-class Dreadnought

The second of the truly strange members of the Pantheon Eternal, the Duality class is the largest of the dreadnoughts, though its weight does not seem to match with this size. This is for the simple reason that the Duality is not designed to be used alone, but rather used by a pair of pilots, two minds working together making the dreadnought a terrifying prospect to face.

Possessing four arms, and a pair of hull mounted weaponry, the Duality’s pilots do not need to focus on all tasks alone, for they are never truly alone anymore. One pilot manages the dreadnoughts movement and sensor arrays, only able to fight with the lesser hull-mounted weaponry, while the secondary pilot commands the main weaponry, four long, perfectly balanced swords, each wreathed in a differing energy field, from a standard power field to a deadly entropic array. Each sword is perfect for striking certain targets, and with two minds acting in perfect unison, the right blade will always find the perfect target.

## The Centurion-class Dreadnought

Of all the dreadnoughts, the Centurion-class is the most humanoid in appearance, and yet is also amongst the least human when it blurs into terrifying motion. Its limbs reveal themselves to have far more joints than any human could ever lay claim to, while multiple arms sprout from its back, each containing a different method of death. From laser cutters to plasma beamers and more esoteric weapons combined, the Centurion-class is adept at fighting clusters of foes, able to engage an Ork WAAAAAGH or Tyranid Hive Mind all but single handedly, though the term single handed would hardly ever be applied to the machine, its multitude of rapidly twisting arms making it hard to place a number on the seemingly thousand limbs the terrifying dreadnought possesses.

## The Chiron-class Dreadnought

While all the other members of the Pantheon, even the Duality and Centurion classes, at least vaguely resemble the human form, the Chiron-class is quite simply put, a centaur, and the fastest outside of combat of all the Pantheon. Able to gallop on its four powerful legs, the Chiron can keep pace with the land-speeders of the Astartes with little effort, all the while bringing to bear a weapon that would make those crafts envious.

A large scale rail cannon takes up one arm, its ammunition loaded with heliothermic cores rarely if ever seen outside of the Emperor’s own forces, the bolts detonating inside of their targets capable of reaching the temperature of a sun, ensuring the enemy dies quickly and painlessly as they are incinerated faster than their pain receptors can register. As the Chiron closes, the weapon is deactivated, sliding out of the way as a curved power sword snaps into place, the sabre like weapon decapitating even the greatest of enemy targets in a single sweep, few enemies able to muster a defence as the Chiron already gallops off once more, wheeling around to strike from another angle, always moving, never ceasing until all its foes lie defeated and slain.

## The Lotan-class Dreadnought

Unique even amongst the pantheon of unique machines, the Lotan-dreadnought is like a serpent, lashing out with speed and ferocity, before retreating in on itself once more, borne into the sky upon a tongue of distorted gravity. Based upon the ancient Sarffen-pattern Dreadnoughts of old, the Lotan is an improvement in every way, for it is capable of true flight in all but the densest gravity wells.

Equipped with long, powered talons and ankle mounted grenade dispensers, the Lotan lands amidst the concussive shock of its own impact and the explosions of its munitions, its own hide proof against such damage, before it blurs into motion, ripping apart infantry and light vehicles alike, before taking to the sky once more, soaring upwards as powerful gravity impellers reduce its mass to the point of weightlessness, allowing true flight despite its colossal size.

## The Arbitrator-class Dreadnought

Clad in black and silver, and bearing a mighty shield upon one arm, the Arbitrator-class dreadnought is every bit the Arbite that it both takes its name from, and named in its own way. Using the shield, the Arbitrator-class is impervious to all but the most gargantuan of weapons arrayed against it, the likes found on starships or the largest of the titans.

In its other hand, it wields a mighty mace, capable of rending armour apart with its blows, or unleashing great energy blasts with a swing of his head, creating great scything beams of energy that can cut through multiple enemies of man in a single, sickening slice.

## The Abyss-class Dreadnought

The third and final of the support class dreadnoughts of the pantheon, the Abyss-class does not repair machines or bolster the health of its charges, instead striding forth with loud speakers and hexagrammic wards, designed to shape and bend the very warp itself, not to wound, but to bolster the men and women who swarm around it, calming their temperament and ensuring that none turn tail and flee in the face of even the harshest enemies. Fighting with a pair of short Crozius Arcanum’s, crushing the skulls of the mightest foes of man, and driving the armies of the Imperium ever onwards.

## The Spectre-class Dreadnought

A terrifying sight to behold, the Spectre-class dreadnought is bedecked not just in armour, but in a unique and powerful holosuite, constantly shifting the form of the mighty dreadnought into new and terrible shapes, each terrifying to behold. To see such a foe would break the mind of lesser men in an instant, rendering them little more than quivering wrecks, barely able to breath alone, let alone fight, and when the two large blades slide forth from its forearms, wreathed in black fire, even the strongest will turn and run, thinking only to save themselves, all thoughts of victory long forgotten.

## The Magus-class Dreadnought

Like the Desolate-class, the Magus-class dreadnought looks like a ‘standard’ member of the pantheon, with only a closer inspection revealing the true power of the machine. No weapons are carried by the Magus, for it is itself a living weapon, designed for use with one of the most powerful psychic pilots in the history of the galaxy, human, trans-human or xenos alike.

With such power, the meticulously inscribed surface of the dreadnoughts armour becomes super charged, creating a walker than it faster, tough and stronger than any of the pantheon, albeit for short periods of time, able to rip through titans or survive orbital strikes with ease. All this does come at a cost however, as if the powers of the Magus are channeled for too long, the feedback from such a potent weapon would likely overwhelm even the hardiest of pilots, rendering the weapon useless, and necessitating cool down periods between the feats of insanity.

## The Liquidator-class Dreadnought

The last of the pantheon, the Liquidator-class dreadnought is nothing short of death incarnate. While the Viral-class may be able to synthesis the most potent toxins ever conceived, and the Magus able to empower itself beyond the realms of mere machines, the Liquidator-class mounts weapons so deadly that even the majority of the warriors of the Imperium shun their use.

A Phosphex annihilator, akin to an inferno cannon, and loaded with deadly living flames, takes up one arm, while the other arm ends in a deadly talon, wreathed in lethal radioactive energies. Even a single touch from the claw will result in a painful death for even the hardiest of targets as their cells begin to break down, the weapon delivering levels of radiation that would prove lethal, even to the warriors of the Custodes.