Aeons of Penance

Modified Dauntless class cruiser Dimensions: 4,5 km long, 0,5 km abeam at fins Mass: 20 megatonnes approx. Crew: 65000 approx Accel: 4,3 Gravities max sustainable acceleration Light, Scouting cruisers are the eyes and ears of Imperial fleets. They carry enough fuel and supplies for patrols that last months or even years, and enough firepower to dispatch any smaller vessels foolish enough to close with them. The Dauntless is popular because it combines the maneuverability of a frigate with a daunting forward lance armament. Martial Hubris: +5 to Ballistic;15 on Pilot (Space Craft) Tests made to escape combat Emissary of the Imperator: Intimidate +15, all other social Skills5. few will be able to see beyond the symbolism of the vesselxenos see a threat, faithful Imperial citizens see a symbol of civilisation (or possibly chastisement), and heretics and rebels see a hated foe. Their reactions will be coloured accordingly Background Package: Planetbound for Millenia: Boni: +10 Maneuverability within 5 VU of a planet Speed: 11(8) Maneuverability: +15(+25 within 5 VU of a planet) Detection: -10 Hull Integrity: 62 Armour: 19(21 front) Turret Rating: 2 Morale: 165 Crew: 100 Crew Rating: Competent (Veteran 50)+5 Space: 0 Energy: 0(12) SP: 129

Weapos Prow: Best Sunhammer Lance (Str 1/ Dmg 1d10+3/crit 3/range 9) Weapos Port: Best Mars Pattern Macrocannon (Str 6/dmg 1d10+3/crit 5/range 6) Weapos Starboard: Best Mars Pattern Macrocannon (Str 6/dmg 1d10+3/crit 5/range 6) Essential Components Plasma Drive: Archaeotech Modified Best Jovian Class 4.5 Warcruiser Drive Warp Engine: Best Markow Mk. 2 (-10 days warp travel) Gellar Field: Good Emergency Gellar Field (>3 on d10: switch on automatically if sucked in warp) Warpsbane Hull (+10 Navigation (warp), roll twice and choose in warp encounters) Void Shields: Archaeotech Castellan Shield (Tech Use (-10): double Void shield for enemy's turn) Life Sustainer: Best Clemency Pattern Life Sustainer Crew Quarters:Good Voidsman Quarters Augury: Good Deep Void Augury Array (+10 Detection) Bridge: Good Armoured Command Bridge (+5 Command, +5 Ballistic) Additional Components Best Field Bracing (pwr 3, +(pwr*2) Hull Integrity) Good Reinforced Prow (+2 Armour front, +1d5 ramming damage) Good Power Ram (+1d10 ramming damage) Best Flak Turrets (have to be activated each turn, ) Good Augmented Retro-Thrusters (+5 maneuverability) Good Observation Dome (+1 Morale, +50 Achivement on Exploration) Best Temple-Shrine to the God-Emperor (+100 Achivement for Creed Missions) Best Auto Temple (+150 Achivement for Creed Missions) Good Broadband Hymn Casters (+10 Intimidate, tech use -10 to vox when active) Best Main Cargo Hold-> converted Good Hold Landing Bay (craft launch at 2 VU. Ordinary (+10) Piloting+Manoeuvrability for landing). 2 Staffeln: 1 Staffel Landeschiffe (#8, sp 10 VU, +7), 1 Staffel Fury (#20, sp 10 VU, +12) Good Reinforced Interior Bulkheads (+3 hull) Best Fire Suppression System (once/turn: Tech use (-10): extinguish fire) Good Murder Servitors (+20 Command on Hit&Run; choose Crit, not roll) Best Brig (+5 Intimidate) Good Melodium (+10 social Skills) Best Medicae Deck (+20 Medicae) Good Astropathic Choid Chambers (+10 Atropathy) Best Pilot Chambers (+2 to all attack craft) Best Munitorium (+25 Achivement for Military Missions, +1 dmg for mc, explodes @crit 2d5 dmg, 1c on fire) Good Barracks (+20 Command vs. boarding and in hit&run when staffed, +100 Achivement Military) Archaeotech Cogitator Interlink (+5 Crew Rating) Archaeotech Energistic Conversion Matrix (+1 Speed/4 Power rerouted, max 5) Good Librarium Vault (+10 to Lore) Best Laboratorium (+20 to Forbidden, Scholastic Lore or crafting of arcane items)

Upgrades Best Disciplinarium (+5 Command, +3 Morale for -1 crew) Good Crew Improvements (Uniforms, Training, Confessions, moderate Officers) Good Overload shield Capacitators (Reactivate overloaded void shield immediatly 3 times/combat) Targeting Matrix (+5 Ballistic auf Lance) Good Starchart Collection (-1d5+5 days warp travel) Good Stormtrooper Detachment (double Hull damage, +1d5 crew damage h&r, +5 Command h&r) Boni +10 navigation (warp) +10 Command (+35 h&r, choose crit) +15 Ballistic +30 Intimidate +5 social +20 medicae +10 astropathy +5 Crew Rating +30 Lore +20 craft (exotic) +1d10+1d5 ramming damage -1d10-1d5 days warp ravel time -15 Pilot (escape combat) +250 on Creed Missions +125 on Military Missions +50 on Exploration Missions History The Ship now known as Aeons of Penance was originally commsissioned sometime in M35; it is not known when exactly. It is based upon a venerated, ancient variation of the holy Dauntless pattern, one which cannot be produced anymore. Originally christened Halo, it was part of the Ecclesiarchal fleet. Outfitted with an Energy rerouting system and an ancient drive that no longer can be produced, the ship seems to have been designated a fast attack ship, operating in a squadron that could be dispatched and race to a crisis almost at a moment's notice. It is believed it did it's duty for at least a millenium, seeing many battles and repairs, before being drafted into Vandire's growing Armada and rechristened Prophet of Regret. This must have included a full purge of the crew and a partial purge of the machine spirit, because all records prior have been received from redundant, archaeotech data stores buried deep within the ship's bilges. Prophet of Regret took part in the battle for Amares Majoris, where Vandire overwhelmed the struggling armies of Paulis III, ascending to Ecclesiarch as well as High Senator, an event which set off the Reign of Blood. In the many battles that followed, the ship, part of a Task Force of Frateris Templer, conducted many raids on worlds deemed heretic, before being fatally damaged and abandoned around the gas giant of Arleesh in the little known Alven system, where it eventually crashed on the largest moon, and lay dormant for a long time.

The Rogue Trader Ollanius Pisces, an Ultramar exile, rediscovered the ship 878M38, and salvaged her. Originally intending to dismantle and sell it for spare parts, the Missionary accompanying him saw the ship's manifold religious imagery and pleaded for it to be restored. Persuaded by the Missionary's deep pockets, the cruiser, now called Forerunner, served with Pisces fleet for some time, proving a temperamental, vicious and moody ship. Ultimately annoyed by a disobedient and zealot machine spirit, Pisces abandoned the ship to the Imperial Navy in exchange for a flight of three Cobras in 991M38, where it served in several fleets in Sectors Cadia, Ixianad, Calixis, Scarus and elsewhere in the Segmentum Obscurus, it's hymn-casters and highly ornate hull casting fear into the hearts of infidels and faithful alike again. It was part of the Angevin Crusade, and served the Ecclesiarchy's Rogue Trader Parson Williams between 5712M39 and 761M39, before being recommissioned a Navy vessel following the Missionary's death from Gray Rot, but continued to bear the name the Missionary-warrior had given it: Aeons of Penance. Character The Ship's machine spirit dates back to the high time of the Ecclesiarchy, and is far more saturated with prayer-algorithms and decision trees based on faith, not reason, than later machine spirits. As such, and building on almost five millenia of battles won and lost, the spirit is highly bellingerent, aggressive, and unwilling to break away from a fight - it will rather stubbornly try to 'recommend' daring attacks, even ramming maneuvers, seeing the Penance's superior speed and armoured prow make a swift and deadly pass throgh an enemy ship. It will sometimes even actively disobey or skew commands demanding it turn itself from an enemy, and it takes a special kind of care and diplomacy to keep this temperamental spirit in check. The spirit also loves the pull of planets, and the ship mysteriously is as agile as a destroyer in the gravity well of a large astronomical body. Outwardly, the Aeons of Penance looks even more like a temple plucked off a planet and hurled into space than Imperial ships usually do. A huge statue of Saint Celestine, wings spread, stands before the bridge, which in parts resides in her head and shoulders. The Bridge doesn't have outside viewshields, instead depending exclusively on Pictscreens and Holographics. A figure of Saint Thor sits on the Prow, a vicious, armoured testament to Imperial fury. Other, lesser saints stand vanguard on the sides of it's body, especially around the two integrated cathedrals. The entire surface is adorned with prayers and warp-repellant hexagrammics, and the Gellar field projects through Saint Celestine's wings. Inwardly, the ship's two huge cathedrals are magnificient to behold. The core temple, called The Emperor and his Primarchs, has been fashioned in a way that it can create the most magnificent hymnals and songs, a Melodium of old, rare in this age of dusk. Hymnals and uplifting song permeate the ship, with the exclusion of the Mechanicus enclaves, and can be heared in every room of the ship, uplifting the hearts of the faithful. The other, the Outer Temple, known as Temple of His Grace, has been added to the ship later and can be detached and landed; it is a recent addition of great, but still lesser craftsmanship than the ship's core The ship's Enginarium, drive and shield matrix are hallowed relics of the Omnissah, and by themselves Temples to His Binary Divinity. A sect of Tech-Priests controls them and viciously defends them against intruders, preferrings ecrecy and caution with the Ecclesiarchal masters they had to serve for so long. Those areas of the ship are covered in binary prayers and with constructs of a

bygone, greater age maintained by serivtors day in, day out, saturated with the smell of ozone and incense, the sounds of Binary and crackling hymns to the Omnissah. The sect - calling themselves Sons of Cobol to outsiders - seems to have been aboard the ship at the very least since it's salvage, but fragmentary records indicate an even longer relationship with the Penance. It is unknown why and what their affinity to the ship is. Another sacred site of the Omnissah is the Spine, a connected series of stablisier fields that has been fastened within the ship's body to restabilise it after the damage sustained by it's long, planet-bound sleep. The armament of the Penance is fairly standard - Mars Pattern macrocannons supplied from a munitions deck, and a sunscar lance. It is believed to be a recent addition, since the previous - and likely, much more advanced - weapons were lost during it's slumber on Arleesh's moon. The ship's interior is splendid overall, covered in religious imagery down to the bilges. Also, though, the images carry a stern faith, the harsh, intolerant school of the Age of Apostasy still visible beneath newer, softer layers of prayers and murals. A multitude of disciplinary stations, electro-pillories and penitentariums offer glimpes of what awaits those who fail the god-emperor. In some cases, these might be activated and put the sloth and disobedient to use as an example for the surviving crew. Crew Crew of the ship is split into three sects with few overlaps. Firstly, there are the base crew, the faithful serfs and voidmen populating the Penance ever since the reign of Parson Williams, who are feverently faithful and recognisable by their uniforms. They wear neat uniforms fashioned loosely and moderately, more like monkish robes than the dashing suits Navy brass prefers. Each uniform is marked with thread and pattern, separating crew into work-forces and ranks. The three largest castes are the machine serfs, the commissioners, who take care of organisation and general issues of shipboard life, and the constablery, the on-board security force. The officers and command crew, however, don't wear much more ornate uniforms, depending largely on personality and respect (and fear) to impress the serfs to do their deeds. The crew makes little use of servitor labout and widely mistrusts the ship's Seraphin. All hands, all castes train regularily for combat; serfs every shipboard month, commissioners and other, smaller castes weekly, and officers and constablery prepare three times a week for combat,. Surprising drills are far from unheared of, but usually not held during important tech ceremonies or if conflicting with mass hours. Each crewman is required to maintain a combat weapon and armour functional at all times, at their place of work and in their bunk, so that they can swiftly respond a call to battle. Training is overseen by the drill sergeants of the regiments in the ship's barracks. The ship's enlarged hangar is a jury-rigged affair also introduced by Missionary-Trader Williams, and not exactly ideal, but still hosting a flight of Furies and appropriate landing ships for a quick military landing operation. The badly fitted hangar is, though, supplemented by well-equipped pilot quarters and training devices, where the flight's pilots and ground crew keep mostly to themselves, even though they are nominally part of the basic crew and share uniforms and masses. They officially call themselves the Skyriders, but are more commonly and derisively known as the Flies. Onboard trade is largely prohibited, but there're always some who grow psychoactive mushrooms in the bilges or who organise forbidden gambling and loiter aftershift. Such excesses are swiftly and

mercilessly dealt with, applying a thoroughly ecclesiarchal code to the culprits. The worst offenders are converted into Arco-Flagellants, a number of which the ship keeps in Stasis for boarding actions or special security measures, slaved to the Ship itself, which is overseen by the ship's high engineseer himself. Usually, the constablery is more than capable of policing the ship by themselves, but in case of mutiny, they have contracts with the barracks, ensuring the soldiers will be on their side. The barracks' inhabintants are as a whole, though, distant from the ship's crew, usually keeping to themselves, with their own infrastructure, meeting only during worship. Regiments have in the past rotated regularily, so these men and women usually have far less of a bond with the Penance, for which the crew more or less subtly deride them. Fights between soldiers and voidmen happen and are usually not punished too harshly, but in case of spilt blood, men have been known to be made a flagellant for the offense. The last population and by far the most seclusive is the Enginseer cult of the Sons of Cobol, who maintain the ship's enginarium and machinery as a whole, and who jealously defend their quarters of the ship, admitting even ranking naval nobility only grudgingly. The Sons of Cobol wear black robes and like secrecy even more than normal Mechanicus Adepts. It's a closely guarded secret that they are not worshippers, but guardians of this ship's machine spirit, which was conceived in a far bygone age, and is notably more powerful and dangerous than any in service today. It has a strong mind of it's own, and has to be kept in a state of religious euphoria, lest it become ... dissatisfied.