Death Guard - Legion Fleet: Just as the Death Guard have retained cohesion better than many other Traitor Legions, so they also maintain much larger and more organised fleets of spacecraft. These so-called Plague Fleets comprise ancient, Heresy-era Battleships, stolen Imperial warships, and even Space Hulks gathered from the tides of the Warp.It falls to the warriors of the 6th Plague Company, the Ferrymen, to master and garrison these craft, and to liberate new ships that may be added to the Death Guard's rotting armada.The Plague Fleets are vital to Mortarion's sons, for they are the vector by which the Death Guard spread Nurgle's blessings to the wider galaxy. Embarking onto these voidcraft, the Plague Companies ride the tides of the Warp like wind-blown contagion, emerging into realspace wherever Nurgle wills.While their craft plough through the Immaterium, they fill up with thick clouds of revolting, fat-bodied plague flies that hatch from walls and bulkheads. When the Death Guard land upon enemy worlds or board their victims' spacecraft, these seething fly-storms come with them, spreading infection wherever they go.Should ships of the Plague Fleets be lost or abandoned, they eventually find their way back to the Plague Planet as drifting derelicts to be crewed again. Some believe this is the will of Nurgle. Others claim that once a ship joins the Plague Fleets, its corrupted Machine Spirit is cursed to obey Mortarion until the end of time.Although not as numerically large as the dedicated warfleets of certain Legions (notably the Imperial Fists, Sons of Horus and Dark Angels), the Death Guard possessed a high proportion of heavy capital ships, many of which were not only of considerable size and power but in several cases unique, being relics of the lost Dark Age of Technology.The names of these vessel had entered into legend well before the Great Betrayal and would live on in infamy long afterward.The following vessels were known to belong to the Legion fleet of the Death Guard before and during the Horus Heresy:Endurance (Gloriana-class Battleship) - The flagship of the XIVth Legion and the Primarch Mortarion during the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy.Indomitable Will (Capital Ship, Unknown Class) - Part of the XIVth Legion deployment charged with hunting down the White Scars Legion during the Horus Heresy.Lord of Hyrus (Capital Ship, Unknown Class)Moritatis Oculis (Capital Ship, Unknown Class)Plagueclaw (Capital Ship, Unknown Class) - The Plagueclaw was a vessel known to be present in the Death Guard's Legion fleet after they were corrupted by Chaos. It may originally have been a different vessel, even one of those named here, and been renamed after the Death Guard swore its allegiance to Nurgle.Spectre of Death (Capital Ship, Unknown Class)Stalwart (Capital Ship, Unknown Class)Tenacious (Capital Ship, Unknown Class) - The Tenacious was a heavy line-breaker that was lost in the first years of the Horus Heresy. Renamed as the Umaal, the vessel would nevertheless continue to fight under the colours of the White Scars Legion.Terminus Est (Capital Ship, Unknown Class) - The Terminus Est was the flagship of First Captain Calas Typhon and remains his vessel today now that he has become Typhus, a Chaos Lord and the Herald of Nurgle, though the vessel has become as twisted and unrecognisable as its master.Undying (Capital Ship, Unknown Class)Reaper's Shroud (Vengeance-class Grand Cruiser) - The Reaper's Shroud was the ship of Malig Laestygon, one of the XIVth Legion's Legion Commanders. The Reaper's Shroud was operating in the vicinity of the Realm of Ultramar - although why this was so remains a mystery. In league with Dark Apostle Quor Gallek, Laestygon set about chasing the Charbydis, a Salamanders' vessel ferrying the body of their fallen Primarch, Vulkan, back to their homeworld. The Reaper's Shroud was however unable to close with its prey before the Charbydis reached the Nocturne-system. Boarding the Charbydis in hope of seizing Vulkan's body, the boarding teams of the Death Guard discovered that the Primarch's casket had already left the ship, upon which Laestygon -- consumed by rage -- ordered the Charbydis's destruction. The Reaper's Shroud then conducted a full-scale planetary assault on Nocturne itself, after both conventionnal and virus-bombardment had failed. While the Death Guard forces planetside where entirely destroyed by the vengeful Salamanders, the Reaper's Shroud was confronted by two Strike Cruisers of the XVIIIth Legion she could ill-afford to do battle with, having been severely damaged herself by her encounter with the Charbydis. The Reaper's Shroud's ultimate fate remains unknown.Reaper's Scythe (Battle Barge) - The Reaper's Scythe was a Battle Barge of Mortarion during the Great Crusade. It is presently the capital ship of the Plague Fleet under the command of Plague Lord Scabarulous the Virulent.Dread (Battle Barge) - The Dread was originally the captured and renamed Battle Barge, Winter's Oath, seized from the Iron Hands Legion in the aftermath of the Istvaan V Dropsite Massacre. The Dread would be seen for the first time after its capture at the conquest of Dominica Minor, and go on to serve the XIVth Legion well for the rest of the Horus Heresy and beyond.Fourth Horseman (Battle Barge)Stalwart (Battle Barge)Mia Donna Mori (Battleship) - During the Great Crusade and the Horus Heresy this monstrous Battleship was a notable engine of destruction and carried enough Exterminatus-class alchem and bio-kill weaponry within her armoured vaults to end life in an entire sector if unleashed.Pitted Iron (Battleship) - Battleship class, commander unknown. Last seen in Ultima Segmentum.Morbid Revelation (Heavy Cruiser, Unknown Class) - The Morbid Revelation was boarded by Blackshield-forces in the Taracanis-system which succeeded in sabotaging the Revelation's Nova Cannon. When the vessel next tried to use its potent main gun against the Explorator Barque Radiant Precept, the Nova-shell exploded and the back blast crippled the Death Guard-vessel, forcing the Morbid Revelation to withdraw entirely from the war.Barbarus' Sting (Strike Cruiser)Implacable (Cruiser, Unknown Class)Necrotor (Gladius-class Light Cruiser) - The Necrotor operated closely with the Reaper's Shroud during the Horus Heresy, acting as a scout vessel for the far heavier ship. It was the Necrotor which first encountered the fleeing Charbydis as their assault on a fuel dump compelled the Salamanders to intervene. Shadowing the Charbydis' movements, the Necrotor assaulted the far heavier Battle Barge after the Charbydis had lost power and weapons through its emergency retranslation into realtiy. While the boarding action met initial success -- the Charbydis numbering only sixty-six able-bodied Legionaries, the Necrotor was mercilessly destroyed when the Battle Barge retrieved power and weapon functions. Cut-off and sourrounded, the boarding parties also perished to the last man.Eisenstein (Frigate) - The Eisenstein was destroyed in the course of its famous flight to bring word of the Warmaster Horus' betrayal to the Emperor on Terra at the direction of Nathaniel Garro.Greenbottle (Escort) - The Greenbottle belonged to an unknwon Escort class. Despite its relatively small size, the Greenbottle has proven able to slip through defences to release orbital virus bombardments on several Imperial Hive Worlds to devastating effect.Valley of Haloes (Supply Hauler) - The Valley of Haloes was a supply hauler in service to the XIVth Legion during the Great Crusade. Suffering a dangerous Gellar Field fluctuation while in transit to the Death Guard's 6th Company flotilla at Arcturan, the Valley had emerged from the Immaterium to effect emergency repairs. Unfortunately, the Valley of Haloes was a casualty at the Arcturan engagement, lost with all hands. Fortunately, a distress signal and recording of the outbreak of insurrection against the Imperium within the Istvaan System was received and was conveyed to the Terminus Est before this regrettable loss, initiating the sequence of events that would become known as the Istvaan III Atrocity.Solace (Repulsive-class Grand Cruiser) - When this warship's hull was originally laid down in the 34th Millennium on the Forge World of Lashte, it was named Undying Valour. It entered service with Battlefleet Archon less than a Terran year after structure completion, commanded by an inexperienced captain named Lutrecia Prask. Its complement of more than thirty thousand ratings was largely drawn from Imperial Navy levy stations strung out beyond the Mourn Ring, and was graded as competent by four subsequent inspection visits. Like all the original Corinus-class Grand Cruisers, it was heavily armed, with Lance and Macrocannon arrays out of proportion to its relatively underweight Void Shielding. It transpired that the class gradually fell out of favour with Imperial commanders, though the Undying Valour served with distinction for another five hundred Terran years, gaining a kill ratio marginally higher than its reputation indicated likely. Captain Prask died in an engagement less than twenty standard years after assuming command, and was replaced by a succession of captains promoted from the lower decks. A Grand Cruiser was a world of its own, and only the very greatest Battleships regularly recruited senior officers from outside the hull -- most captains were born, raised and trained on the ship they would later command. The last of the line, Orthan Hemmo, was of this tradition, and was said to have loved the ship more than his own children, of which there were twenty before circumstances intervened to curtail his commendable contribution to the replenishment of Imperial numbers.Those circumstances came at the Battle of the Borghesh Channel, a vicious encounter in which the Imperium lost twenty vessels and had its grip loosened on three sub-sectors. By the time Imperial Navy retribution fleets overwhelmed the region more than sixty standard years later, there was no sign of the Undying Valour at its last reported coordinates -- only a slowly spinning core of metal to which Captain Hemmo's deep-frozen corpse was, it was rumoured later, nailed on tight. In truth, the Undying Valour had been taken into the Eye of Terror and stayed there for five Terran millennia. It was renamed the Solace after it became corrupted by the power of Nurgle, which made the ship semi-sentient. It was eventually taken by the Chaos Lord Vorx, commander of the Heretic Astartes warband of the Death Guard called the Lords of Silence, who ensured that the corrupted ship was placated with plenty of flesh and blood, in order to prevent the Solace from turning upon its own warriors. However this did not stop the Solace from occasionally growing tentacles in order to attack and devour members of the warband.