Mortem Damnationis

A pict-captureo of the *Mortem Damnationis* at Port Maw during the beginning of the 12th Black Crusade.

## Vessel

### Commander

Admiral Kyros (Former)
Unknown Warp Entity (Former)

The Intelligence (Former)

## Weaponry

### Board

2x Plasma Macro-Batteries

The **Mortem Damnationis** is an ancient Retribution-class Battleship dating back to the 12th Black Crusade, known also as the Gothic War. Much of the vessels early history has yet to be uncovered, however what is known is that the vessel was believed to be destroyed towards the end of the Gothic War in an emergency Warp Jump. It would not be until 877.M41, almost seven centuries later, that the vessel would re-appear in realspace within a quarantined sector and emit a distress signal, it's signal detected by a passing fleet of the Nova Wolves Chapter who moved in to investigate. The events that followed have since been classified by the Ordo Malleus branch of the Inquisition, all that is known is that the *Mortem Damnationis* was destroyed.

144 years later, in 021.M42, the *Mortem Damnationis* would make yet another appearance, now in the Hyrulian Sector despite it's apparent destruction, this the time the vessel being properly destroyed by Inquisitorial and Deathwatch forces.

## History

### Gothic War

The earliest available records of the Mortem date to the Gothic War of the 12th Black Crusade, any earlier records mysteriously absent from all archives. What is known is that the Mortem Damnationis took part from the start of the war to it's final days. At wars end the Mortem and her escorts were ambushed by a Chaos fleet hiding within a local asteroid field, the ensuing battle lasting over several terran hours, leading to the destruction of each escort and the Mortem herself suffering heavy damage after being rammed by an enemy cruiser.

In a bid to save his vessel, each battleship being a priceless piece of the Imperium's arsenal, Admiral Kyros had his ship begin an emergency warp jump to escape the battle. This would be the last time the Mortem Damnationis was seen during the Gothic War. After recovering the wrecks of the escort vessels and their combat data, Imperial analysts theorized that the damage sustained by the Mortem led to a catastrophic failure of the geller fields and the complete loss of the vessel and her crew to the tides of the Warp.

### Joviar Uprisings

It would not be until 763.M41, almost six centuries later, that the Mortem would re-appear in realspace out in the Joviar Sector in the Segmentum Ultima, a full segmentum away from their last known position. After making contact with local Imperial forces, word somehow made it's way to the Inquisition and the Ordo Chronos. Investigating this anomaly in time, an Inquisitorial representative was dispatched to interrogate the crew for any signs of corruption. After a year of scrutiny the crew was deemed free of corruption much to the surprise of the Inquisition, shortly afterwards the Mortem was cleared to return to active duty after repairs were completed.

Before setting out for the Gothic Sector, the Mortem Damnationis was temporarily re-assigned by Segmentum Command to aid Battlefleet Joviar in suppressing the rampant Joviar Uprisings raging across the sector. Unknown to the wider Imperium, the sector housed a slowly growing fault in the boundaries between realspace and the Warp resulting in the rampant spread of Chaos cults across the sector. Their unchecked blood lust and sacrifices eventually led to a violent eruption of daemonic activity across every world, so intense was the warp incursion that two brotherhoods of the Grey Knights were deployed alongside the Ordo Malleus to handle the threat.

It was during this chaos that a new form of daemonic entity revealed itself, a spectral figure capable of inhabiting the stars themselves and manipulating them into weapons. This creature, through means unknown to the Ordo Malleus and Grey Knights, jumped from star to star and devastated entire systems with solar flare so powerful that the Warp had to have been involved in some way. One such attack led to the destruction of the Mortem's battlegroup and the crippling of the battleship herself. Shortly after, when near the entire sector had been devastated and evacuations complete, the Inquisition performed a mass exterminatus on any world still capable of supporting life before quarantining the system until such time a way to re-take it could be devised. As for the Mortem Damnationis, she became little more than a drifting wreck in a starship graveyard..