Phalanx - Phalanx: Phalanx is the massive starship that serves as the mobile fortress-monastery of the Imperial Fists Space Marine Chapter and was constructed many millennia ago by unknown hands during the Dark Age of Technology long before the Age of the Imperium.Phalanx itself is gigantic, the largest starship known to have been constructed by Human hands, and something of its magnitude has not been seen since the Age of Technology. The size of a small moon or large asteroid, its foredeck can dock a dozen Imperial Navy cruisers around its circumference.The vessel is essentially a hive city in space, with its great spires reaching towards the stars, giving it the appearance of a giant mace-head. In many ways, Phalanx is the only vessel ever built by Mankind that comes close in size and complexity to that of the Aeldari's craftworlds.Phalanx is so large that it reflects light like the stars themselves, and it served as a symbolic representation of the Emperor Himself during the time of the Great Crusade. The vast starship is completely mobile and capable of travel through the Warp and often follows the Imperial Fists Chapter as it moves throughout the galaxy.There are various descriptions of the general shape and exterior character of the great starship. These include a structure of "towering forests of spires interlaced with flying buttresses" or a structure that leads observers to believe Phalanx "might have been a planetoid or minor moon."It is also described as a ship that is "many kilometers long, triangular in cross-section with its upper surface bristling with weapons and sensorium domes. Two wings swept back from the hull, trailing directional vanes like long gilded feathers. Every surface was clad in solid armour plating and every angle was covered by more torpedo tubes and lance batteries than any Imperial battleship could muster" and with "thousands of battle-honours and campaign markings all over the beak-like prow."Phalanx is essentially a mobile, pre-Imperial battle station that serves as both the Imperial Fists' Chapter homeworld and their foremost warship. In form and scale, it is nearer a planetoid than a conventional vessel; it is a mighty cathedral of war that dwarfs the largest Battle Barge, and wields the firepower of a formidable ﬂeet.The secrets of Phalanx's construction are long-forgotten, though it is known that the Primarch Rogal Dorn brought it into the Emperor's service at the time of their first meeting, and it has performed proudly ever since.In the days of the Great Crusade and the Horus Heresy, its shadow fell across hundreds of worlds, the fury of the Imperial Fists following close behind. Since that time, it has circled the Sol System, its orbit synchronous with that of sacred Terra, an ever-vigilant golden sentinel to safeguard the cradle of Mankind as the days grow darker.Yet the passing millennia have not been kind to Phalanx, and constant vigilance and warfare have taken their inevitable toll. Despite the efforts of the Imperial Fists Techmarines, more of the mighty vessel's systems fail each standard year, and the skill required to repair them has long passed out of living memory.Once, Phalanx bestrode the stars as a colossus of war, but now its zenith has passed. It has departed the Sol System only rarely in recent times, its venerable engines coaxed to life in service of great vengeance or dire need.Though Phalanx is a wan shadow of its former glory, the starship's might still outshines any other vessel known to Mankind, and its name strikes terror into the hearts of the Imperium's foes. Venerable Phalanx has many more battles yet to fight and many more blows to strike in the name of Rogal Dorn.