Fellblade - Fellblade: The Fellblade was a highly advanced pattern of Imperial super-heavy main battle tank. It was based upon the same Standard Template Construct (STC) design as the mighty Baneblade and Deathhammer super-heavy tanks that formed the mainstay of the vast armoured brigades of the Legiones Astartes and the Imperial Army during the Great Crusade and later, the Horus Heresy.The Fellblade was by far the more advanced design of the three, featuring many technologies that were unique to its construction, such as compact Mechanicum Atomantic Arc-reactor technology, a reinforced metaplas alloy chassis that provided protection superior to that of nearly all other Imperial armoured vehicles, and an advanced Accelerator Cannon as its primary armament.Many of the technologies used in the construction of the Fellblade were all fruits of archeotech first developed during the Dark Age of Technology and restored to humanity by the later conquests of the Emperor of Mankind's Great Crusade. The Fellblade was most widely used by the Space Marine Legions, yet also saw limited use by the Imperial Army and other Imperial forces like the Mechanicum. Along with its sister tank, the Falchion, the Fellblade was one of the most powerful and most feared weapons used during this ancient time.In this era, the Space Marines operated very differently than in the late 41st Millennium. The Space Marine Legions fought as the Imperium's front-line forces and used massive amounts of overwhelming firepower to achieve their goals, rather than acting as their modern-era counterparts who are primarily elite shock infantry that make use of surgical strikes against enemy weak-points as the much smaller Space Marine Chapters of the present era prefer.During the Great Crusade, the Space Marines fought on an unimaginable scale, fighting wars with tens, or even hundreds of thousands of elite warriors who could conquer entire planets in mere solar days, or even hours. These massive armies of Astartes were given the very best technology constructed by the Mechanicum of Mars, and one of the greatest of their works of war was the Fellblade.The Fellblade was piloted by a trained crew of humans either from the Mechanicum or by Serfs of the Legion it was assigned to, but could also be fully crewed by the Astartes themselves. These war-machines were used as unstoppable line-breaker tanks, siege tanks, siege-breaker tanks, tank killers, and mobile command fortresses. It is thought that some Space Marine Legions, such as the Iron Warriors, Ultramarines, and Imperial Fists, made extensive use of the Fellblade, while others, like the Night Lords, White Scars, and the Raven Guard, who preferred hit-and-run tactics, may have eschewed their use altogether. During the Horus Heresy these tanks were used by both Traitor and Loyalist forces alike.Once, such mighty engines of war were commonplace in the arsenals of the Adeptus Astartes, but since the Legions of old were divided into smaller Chapters during the Second Founding, few new super-heavy tanks have been brought into service. The Second Founding deliberately curtailed the power of individual Space Marine formations so that any future rebellion would be limited in scale and incapable of bringing the Imperium to its knees ever again. The need and scope for the use of heavy tanks like the Fellblade and its kin receded, but some Chapters, in particular those of the First and Second Founding, retain examples still.Such venerable engines of war see occasional use when the Chapter makes war against the most potent of enemy forces, in particular their erstwhile brethren in the Traitor Legions as well as the fallen Titan Legions. It is unknown exactly how many active Fellblades are still in service during the late 41st Millennium.