Eldar Cruisers
The Deadly Menace

Eclipse Class Cruiser

Size: 4.7 KM long, 1.4 KM abeam at widest point

Crew: 72,000

Max Acceleration: 8 g

Defences: Wraithbone armour, Holofeild.

Standard Main Armament: 6 StarCannons, 1 Pulsar Lance, 1 Hangar Bay (all frontally mounted)

Standard secondary Armament: Missile Banks and Shuriken Cannons (broadside, belly and spine mounted, undetermined numbers)

Auxiliary craft: 16 DarkStar Fighters, 8 Eagle Bombers, 50 Nightwing fighters, 30 Vampire Raiders, 15 Phoenix Attack Craft and 15 Vampire Hunters

Lore: The Eclipse is unusual both as a cruiser and a carrier. Most races have a general consensus of Cruisers being line ships, making up the majority of the firepower and acting as a solid 'front line' for admirals to conduct battle from, Carriers also generally being considered as back-line support ships rather than attack vessels; often requiring an escort. The Eclipse fits neither of these categories very well, despite technically being a member of both.
The Eclipse has more than enough firepower to rival any non-carrier based cruiser with its Pulsar and StarCannon armament combined with incredible speed, making the Eclipse an incredibly dangerous front-line fighter despite its 'carrier' role: the ship also outclassing many carriers due to Eldar Strike Craft supremacy. The Eclipse does not fit the typical cruiser role either... like all Eldar warships, rely on mobility and stealth above all else to make hit-and-run and flanking attacks on any foe they may be facing.
This oddity of extreme speed and firepower on a supposed 'carrier' has lead to many Imperial strategists to question its weight classification as Cruiser, despite its designation as such by the Eldar themselves.

The Cruiser itself, predictably given its armament, is a brutally dangerous adversary to deal with. Full flotillas of Imperial Cruisers have been felled by the Eclipse, and very few Battleships can even claim to be able to properly challenge such a deadly vessel. The ships only real weakness is its vulnerability for its size, lacking any armour protection and having very limited crew numbers: any successful boarding action or battery/lance hit made through it's holofields being more than enough to cripple the cruiser. This becoming apparent when the Cobra destroyers of Skargul squadron got a lucky hit on the Eclipse Class Cruiser, Stardeath, crippling the cruiser instantly and dropping its holofield protection: the three destroyers then being more than capable of tearing the much larger warship to pieces despite their lacking armament.
The Cruiser has earned much of its reputation as a lethal killer in the Gothic War, however, where Eclipse Class Cruisers proved to be the deadliest vessels to Imperial and Chaos shipping throughout the war (aside from the dreaded, and much less common, Void Stalker Battleship), and continued to haunt convoy operations long after.

The Eclipse is the Assault Carrier among the Eldar Cruisers

Shadow Class Cruiser

Size: 4.7 KM long, 1.4 KM abeam at widest point

Crew: 60,000

Max Acceleration: 8 g

Defences: Wraithbone armour, Holofeild.

Standard Main Armament: 9 StarCannons, 4 Torpedo Launchers (all frontally mounted)

Standard secondary Armament: Missile Banks and Shuriken Cannons (broadside, belly and spine mounted, undetermined numbers)

Auxiliary craft: 6 Nightwing fighters, 6 Vampire Raiders

Lore: This ship is considered by many within the Imperium as the most typical example of what can be expected from Eldar warships.
The Shadow is incredibly fast and mobile, possesses a deadly battery of StarCannons and Torpedo launchers and very poor protection beyond her holofields: typical of all Eldar vessels.
Despite this seemingly unimpressive layout, she is not to be underestimated, the Shadow is one of the deadliest frequent raiders of Imperial shipping in the Gothic Sector: many Eldar captains becoming informace for their exploits at the helms of Shadow Class Cruisers. Perhaps the most infamous of all being the Black Star and her captain, Prince Conanmaol, who has succeeded in capturing or destroying hundreds of Imperial capital ships over the millennia: as well as claiming countless dozens of Convoys attempting to pass by the Graildark nebula.

The Shadow is also one of the few Eldar ships that are relatively well known by the Imperium, as they are so frequently seen and destroyed; many wrecks of Shadow's have found their way into Imperial hands. One fully intact Shadow, Fhianna Rethol, was also temporarily taken under Imperial control after being Immobilised and boarded. The ship was studied closely by the Navy and elements of the Mechanics: which is where much of the Imperium's knowledge of Solar Sails and Holo Fields can be traced back to, but the ship did not last longer than a month, as a torpedo attack from Nightshade Destroyers would destroy her utterly before the Imperium could relocate her.

The Shadow is the Standard Cruiser of the Eldar fleet.

Dragonship

Size: 4.5 KM long, 0.6 KM abeam at widest point

Crew: 50,000-80,000

Max Acceleration: 8 g

Defences: Wraithbone armour, Holofeild.

Standard Main Armament: 9 StarCannons , 1 Hangar Bay (or), 1 Pulsar Lance (all frontally mounted)

Standard secondary Armament: Missile Banks and Shuriken Cannons (broadside, belly and spine mounted, undetermined numbers)

Auxiliary craft:
Non carrier variant: 4 Nightwing fighters, 4 Vampire Raiders
Carrier variant: 16 DarkStar Fighters, 8 Eagle Bombers, 50 Nightwing fighters, 30 Vampire Raiders, 15 Phoenix Attack Craft and 15 Vampire Hunters

Lore: The term 'Dragon' is the term given to the (roughly) cruiser-sized vessels in use with the Craftworld Eldar, two Dragons can vary vastly in appearance, armament, size and capabilities. The only thing the Dragon 'class' as a whole has in common being it's weight designation as cruisers.
Despite this lack of standardisation among the class, there are more common variants: Void Dragon (a variant that typically operates far from the Craftworld and makes extensive use of stealth), Ghost Dragon (a variant which lacks any crew and is operated by spirit stones containing the souls of long-dead Eldar) and variants armed with Pulsars, Star Cannons or Launch Bays.

The Dragon can generally be characterised (despite the vast variation from ship to ship) as ships which are very well armed, even by Eldar standards, and fairly typical in their excellent mobility and poor protection. Much like the other vessels in use with the Craftworld Eldar, its tactical application is built entirely around protecting the Craftworld itself. While swarms of Shadowhunters envelop and destroy most targets, small groups of Dragons regularly patrol in an inner sphere around the Craftworld, effectively acting as a second line of defence for the Craftworld. In times of Dire need, Ghost Dragons also being deployed to increase numbers and firepower being brought to bear in defence of the craftworld. The only exception to this pack-defence being the Void Dragons, which push deep into space away from the Craftworld in search of any potential threats and destroying them before they can threaten the Craftworld. Some Craftworlds, like Beil-tan for example, make greater use of Void Dragons due to their highly aggressive nature: many corsair princes also finding at least one Void Dragon among their arsenal of vessels.

The Dragon is the standard cruiser of the Craftworld Eldar.

Wraithship

Size: 4.5 KM long, 0.6 KM abeam at widest point

Crew: 50,000-80,000

Max Acceleration: 8 g

Defences: Regenerative Wraithbone armour, Holofeild.

Standard Main Armament: 9 StarCannons (or), 1 Hangar Bay (or), 1 Pulsar Lance (all frontally mounted)

Standard secondary Armament: Missile Banks and Shuriken Cannons (broadside, belly and spine mounted, undetermined numbers)

Auxiliary craft:
Non carrier variants: 4 Nightwing fighters, 4 Vampire Raiders
Carrier variant: 16 DarkStar Fighters, 8 Eagle Bombers, 50 Nightwing fighters, 30 Vampire Raiders, 15 Phoenix Attack Craft and 15 Vampire Hunters

Lore: Wraithships are cruiser sized vessels unique to the Craftworld eldar which are unusual for their durability.
Most Eldar ships are 'crafted' from Wraithbone: a semi-organic material which the Eldar use in construction of almost all of their structures, weapons, armour and ships; the Wraithship differs in that the whole ship is physically 'grown' and shaped in a functioning cruiser from a core of solid Wraithbone drawn directly out of the warp. This unconventional form of ship construction means the ship itself is semi-sentient and physically attuned to the physci of her captain and crew, it also the gives the ship more 'organic' properties that permit it a limited form of regeneration, making it surprisingly difficult to kill for an Eldar vessel.

The ship's mobility is fairly typical by Eldar standards, and its armament is slightly lacking for an Eldar cruiser; but that by no means makes it harmless.
The ship can be equipped with a Pulsar, StarCannons or Launch Bays depending on its variant.
The Wraithships themselves are normally seen deployed with groups of Dragons or the largest ships seen Patrolling the skies within the Craftworld itself. They are the absolute last line of defence, and their toughness often makes them the crux of any space-born defence mounted by the CraftWorld Eldar despite their inferior armanet to the Dragon. The ships are also frequently mistaken for Dragons for their similar appearance to many of the Dragon variants, a very foolish mistake to make, for a Wraithship is no easy vessel to destroy through its regenerative hull and holofield protection.

A surprisingly tough defensive cruiser in use with the Craftworld Eldar.

Torture Class Cruiser

Size: 4.2 KM long, 1.3 KM abeam at widest point

Crew: Unknown

Max Acceleration: 8 g

Defences: unknown armour composition, Shadowfeild, Mimic Engine.

Standard Main Armament: 9 Weapon Batteries (StarCannon equivalents), 1 Impaler Module (or), 1 Phantom Lance (all frontally mounted)

Standard secondary Armament: Missile Banks and Splinter Cannons (broadside, belly and spine mounted, undetermined numbers)

Auxiliary craft: Unkown

Lore: Even among Eldar vessels very little of this vessel is known.
Imperial records of the second identified Dark Eldar weight class named the 'Torture' was only very recently added to Imperial archives, several hundred reported 'eldar' attacks with Eclipse and Shadow Cruisers now believed to have in fact been Torture raids.
The exact capabilities of the ship aren't known, and several variants have already been identified; some so radically different they might as well be different classes. However, a 'standard' variant has been identified which is used as the example for Imperial records.
The most common 'standard' variant is equipped with an Impaler Assault module and a large array of weapon batteries; this armament has proven more than enough to destroy all but the very heaviest of Imperial shipping if the re-identified raids are anything to go by.

Further analysis of the few wrecks in Imperial possession have also shed light on how these ships have evaded detection for so long: they possess the same mimic engine technology previously identified on the Corsair escorts.
This has had worrying implications for the Imperium, as it could mean entire 'convoys' could instead prove to be a fleet of Dark Eldar warships. It also seriously undermines Imperial efforts to protect convoy operations and calls into question the true power and intentions of the different Eldar factions, as many more Corsair, CraftWorld and even a few Ork attacks may yet turn out to also be Dark Eldar in origin.

The Torture is the only known cruiser in service with the Dark Eldar.

Eldar Battleship
Mysterious Majesty

VoidStalker Battleship

Size: 8 KM long, 2.9 KM abeam at widest point

Crew: Unkown

Max Acceleration: 8 g

Defences: Wraithbone armour, Holofeild.

Standard Main Armament: 9 Heavy StarCannons , 2 Hangar Bays, 4 Heavy Pulsar Lances (all frontally mounted)

Standard secondary Armament: Missile Banks and Shuriken Cannons (broadside, belly and spine mounted, undetermined numbers)

Auxiliary craft: 50 DarkStar Fighters, 20 Eagle Bombers, 200 Nightwing fighters, 120 Vampire Raiders, 80 Phoenix Attack Craft and 80 Vampire Hunters

Lore: The VoidStalker is a battleship of unknown origin and the largest vessel known to be in service with any Eldar fleet.
These ships are as terrifying as they are beautiful to behold, easily the match of any of the mightiest of Imperial Battleships. The ship is fast for a battleship, and equipped with a terrifying array of Pulsar lances and StarCannons along with the most carrier capacity of any known Eldar vessel. This means the VoidStalker is more than capable of catching and utterly destroying whole fleets of other warships, Imperial tacticians and archivists believing that this is why the ship was never reportedly sighted prior to the Gothic War; many 'disappearances' possibly being attributed to VoidStalker attacks.
The only real weakness the VoidStalker has is one that she shares in common with almost all other Eldar vessels: her complete lack of armour, only exaggerated by her large size. This does mean that if she is facing another battleship or a large number of capital ships, she may struggle to destroy them completely before receiving crippling damage in return. However, her incredible firepower, speed and Holo Field protection are often more than enough to cover this weakness.

The VoidStalker's first appearance was during the Gothic War.
Until the battle of Gethsemane, is was believed by the Imperium that the Eldar possessed nothing larger than a cruiser, and nothing other than escorts and cruisers was seen in combat in the Gothic War up to that point: so the arrival of the VoidStalker was a shock to Imperial captains and Admirals. Two VoidStalkers made special distinction in particular and demonstrated what the new Eldar vessel could do: the Bright Star and the Forge of Vaul.
The Bright Star can be attributed with the destruction of the blockade fleet above Lethe and the destruction of several Chaos Grand and Heavy Cruisers in the Lysades system, earning her captain many commendations from the Imperial Navy; the Eldar loudly boasting the ship had never been defeated in battle.
The Forge of Vaul, while having a less impressive kill tally of mostly Light Cruisers and Escorts, operated in very close cooperation with Imperial Navy elements assaulting systems controlled by the Orks. She helped greatly in protecting numerous Imperial assault transports and capital ships from attack, as well as regularly providing air support and bombardment for Imperial ground forces. Her captain's actions earning great respect from many Imperial commanders and Admirals of the VoidStalker vessel.

The Void Stalker is the only known battleship known to be in service with the Eldar, and is seen only in use with the Corsairs.

Ork Strike Craft
Ramshackle Aces

Ork Fighta

Length: N/A

Wingspan: N/A

Crew: 1 Ork, undetermined number of Grots and/or Squigs

Sublight engine: Varies

Power supply: Varies

Standard Armament: N/A

Warp Capable: No

Lore: The umbrella term given to all Ork fighters that are capable only as fighter craft.
They are generally capable of atmospheric and Void combat (although more often than not are equally as terrible in both environments) and can have vastly varied armaments, size, speed and protection: but they can be generalised. Most Ork Fightas have their noses crammed with as many high calibre Autocannons and powerful Zzap cannons as the Orks can fit onto the chassis, sticking more onto the Wings until it is only barely flight worthy. The craft then has armour haphazardly bolted, welded or sometimes just dented on with strategically placed punching and hammer blows as they can possibly fit.

The now rather wonky and thrown-together creation is an Ork Fighta.
Given the way that each craft can be so different from one another, it is impossible to make a size estimation, but they are generally quite stubby and fat due to all the armour bolted onto it and heavy ammo it is carrying. Mostly only piloted by the proud owner of the Fighta in question, but sometimes may have grots on board for mid-flight reloads if they weren't fortunate or didn't have the ‘teef’ to afford actual ammo feeds.

The only ‘redeeming’ value to these are that they are extremely numerous. Even the smallest Ork carriers somehow finding space crammed inside for anything up to a hundred of these in haphazard and non-uniform swarm-like craft. Orks liking to launch all of their strike craft at once, not understanding tactics and strategy very well. These swarms only get larger with more Ork ships and larger carriers, making them a deadly threat and extreme annoyance to opposing carrier operations.

Ork Fighta-Bommer

Length: N/A

Wingspan: N/A

Crew: 2 Orks, undetermined number of Grots and/or Squigs

Sublight engine: Varies

Power supply: Varies

Standard Armament: N/A

Warp Capable: No

Lore: The umbrella term for Ork Fighters that can double in the anti-shipping role.
For an Ork, no better craft exists. They provide the savage joy of dakka and speed of the Fighta, and combine it with the deadly explosives of the Bommer. Everything a budding Ork 'pilot' enthusiast could ever want in one strike craft, thus many Fighta owners strive to tinker and upgrade there Fighta craft until it reaches the point where it can be called a Fighta-Bommer, and most Fightas inevitably become Fighta-Bommers.

Same as the Fighta, they double in the atmospheric and Void combat role; and are equally as haphazard and generally terrible in the fighter role. The main difference these have from the Fightas is that they are normally noticeably larger (although still so varied it’s hard to generalise) to accommodate room for crude bombs and rockets. These making them equally terrible as bombers.

They normally have a crew of two Orks, a rear gunner/bombardier and the pilot (optional grots also coming along or getting ‘accidently’ caught up in its gears as stowaways).
Again, like all Ork Strike Craft, their only real advantage is numbers. It being quite normal for most carriers to deploy hundreds of them at once.

Ork Bommer

Length: N/A

Wingspan: N/A

Crew: Varries

Sublight engine: Varies

Power supply: Varies

Standard Armament: N/A

Warp Capable: No

Lore: The Ork Bommers, and all their variants, are massive even by bomber standards.
The huge craft are varied, like all Ork craft, beyond what can be reasonably generalised but there are three variants that are distinguished from each other by the Orks: the Bommer, the Eavy Bommer (like as pictured) and the Blasta Bommer. All generally characterised by a ridiculously heavy armament of guns of all sizes and types and a massive armament of missiles and bombs.

The Bommer is the smallest and quickest, but none are by any means small or fast as most are around the size and dimensions of StarHawks.

The Eavy Bommer is more of a giant flying fortress than a strike craft. It barely moves, but can throw up a flack wall that can put some smaller warships to shame and has a payload that can crack open even the largest of ships.

The Blasta Bommer, which forgoes bombs and missiles to make room for a massive gun that you would normally find batteries of on the broadsides of a Lite Krooza or on the prow of an Ork escort. Of course such a weapon is prone to failure, and as much a danger to the strike craft firing as it is to whatever is on the receiving end.

Normally not as many of these are carried by Ork carriers as the Fightas and Fighta bommers, a limitation of their immense size, but the vast swarms are normally pock-marked with enough Bommers of all shapes and sizes, making them an immense danger to any warship facing them.

(Before anyone asks, Orks don’t really have assault craft. They just strap themselves to whatever flies in order to board ships.)

Ork Escorts
Brutal Menace

Brute Class Ram Ship

Size: 1.1 KM long, 0.5 KM abeam at widest point

Crew: Unknown

Max Acceleration: 3-5 g

Defences: Variable armour, Looted Void Shield.

Standard Main Armament: 1 Gunz Battery, Power-ram (all frontally mounted)

Standard secondary Armament: Shootas, Missiles and Kannonz (broadside, belly and spine mounted, undetermined numbers)

Auxiliary Craft: N/A

Lore: If a ship more orky than the Brute exists, it has not yet been documented by the Imperium.
The Brute is, as its name implies, brutally simple and simply brutal. The ship features very light armament for an Ork ship, with only a single relatively light weapon battery as a primary ranged armament, but this ship is not designed as a traditional escort but as a ship-sized ramming device.

The ship has a large powered ram dominating its prow section, making up approximately 50% of the ships mass, and a rear section dominated by a vast series of very powerful engines capable of propelling the ship at very high rates of acceleration of 10g or more in short bursts. This combination meaning the ship can quite easily plow through the armour of even the largest and toughest of battleships and deal crippling blows to stations and warships that would otherwise be immune to the attacks of a ship of this size.

Such is there lethality that they are a priority target for anyone with even the slightest knowledge of Ork vessels, making such a ship suicidal to crew. But the Orks hardly seem to care, as vast swarms are found wherever an Ork fleet is located.

Onslaught Class Attack Ship

Size: 1.6 KM long, 0.6 KM abeam at widest point

Crew: Unknown

Max Acceleration: 2-3 g

Defences: Variable armour, Looted Void Shield.

Standard Main Armament: 3 Gunz Batterys (frontally mounted)

Standard secondary Armament: Shootas, Missiles and Kannonz (broadside, belly and spine mounted, undetermined numbers)

Auxiliary Craft: N/A

Lore: These warships are the most common of any Ork warship present during an attack. Ugly, slow, and difficult to manoeuvre; they need these numbers to stand any hope of having an impact.

Its armour is a hodge-podge of poorly armoured rear and side sections, but a prow section dominated by huge slabs of armour bolted and welded across its entire front, and slanted back at steep angles to resemble that of a giant predatory fish head. This makes the ship easy to kill when flanked, but nightmarish difficult to destroy during a head-on attack. To compliment this, the ship features a large number of weapon batteries for an escort, all facing forward, making this ships role fairly obvious as a light assault ship.

However, due to its poor mobility, this very rarely means they are any good as escorts. Being easily outclassed by the Sword Class frigate, but it is a foolish captain indeed who underestimates a horde of Onslaught Attack ships in a head-on attack.

Savage Class Gunship

Size: 1.6 KM long, 0.6 KM abeam at widest point

Crew: Unknown

Max Acceleration: 2-3 g

Defences: Variable armour, Looted Void Shield.

Standard Main Armament: 2 Heavy Gunz Batterys (frontally mounted)

Standard secondary Armament: Shootas, Missiles and Kannonz (broadside, belly and spine mounted, undetermined numbers)

Auxiliary Craft: N/A

Lore: The savage is effectively an onslaught, but with much heavier firepower.
The ship is equipped with 2 (or more) Heavy weapon batteries, that would typically only be found on capital ships, fixed into its nose. These weapons hold extreme destructive power, able to smash apart anything unfortunate enough to hit by its massive shells in a matter of moments. Combined with the high frontal armour, this makes the ship a deadly foe to slow and less manoeuvrable foes who cannot escape its frontal kill-zone.

However, the ship is still appallingly slow for an escort, and doesn't turn quickly. Combined with the short effective range of Ork weapons and the poor side and rear protection making this ship vulnerable target practice for more nimble foes. But when used in ambushes, or vast sweeping hordes, very few Ork escorts can compete for the sheer devastation the savage can cause.

Ravager Attack Ship

Size: 1.6 KM long, 0.6 KM abeam at widest point

Crew: Unknown

Max Acceleration: 3-4 g

Defences: Variable armour, Looted Void Shield.

Standard Main Armament: 1 Gunz Batterys, 2 Torpedo tubes (frontally mounted)

Standard secondary Armament: Shootas, Missiles and Kannonz (broadside, belly and spine mounted, undetermined numbers)

Auxiliary Craft: N/A

Lore: The Ravager is a crude attempt by Ork war-bosses to emulate the success of the Cobra Class Destroyer. They feature more powerful engines than most Ork escorts, and a set of torpedo tubes. The torpedoes they fire are notoriously unreliable and slow, and often as much a threat to Ork shipping as to the opponents if they can even hit anything, but they make up for any shortcomings with their sheer size and destructive potential.

In the past, such ships where fairly rare, Ork warbosses would deploy them in large screening hordes along with other escort types. The Ravager almost always proved to be a detriment to such formations, rarely adding to the potency of the horde but would often destroy other Ork vessels in great numbers.
The escort was first deployed in great numbers by the legendary warboss Ghazghkull Thraka during the 2nd War of Armageddon, who used them to great effect in direct emulation of Imperial tactics by dividing the Ravagers up into smaller groups and directing them at the largest Imperial vessels. This proved far more effective, and demonstrated the strengths of the Ravager to other warbosses and Imperial admirals. Crippling Imperial battle-groups, forcing Battlefleet Armageddon to adopt a policy of skirmishes and recycling lost vessels, such was the attrition rate due to the sudden increase efficiency of the Imperial fleet.
The Ravager has since become a far more common and feared opponent, a couple of Ravagers able to reap more devastation than almost any other Ork escort from any range.

Ork Light Cruiser
The New Breed

Lite Kroozer

Size: 4.1-5.1 KM long, 1.6-2.1 KM abeam at widest point

Crew: Unknown

Max Acceleration: Varries

Defences: Variable armour, Looted Void Shield.

Standard Main Armament: Varries

Standard secondary Armament: Shootas, Missiles and Kannonz (broadside, belly and spine mounted, undetermined numbers)

Auxiliary Craft: Varries

Lore: After the 2nd war of Armageddon, vast space-borne grave yards of crippled or destroyed vessels littered the entirety of the Armageddon sector. Both Battlefleet Armageddon and Ork stranglers spending much of the time between the 2nd and 3rd wars for Armageddon picking through these vast treasure troves for salvageable parts and warships. It is thanks to this that battlefleet Armageddon was able to recover its losses relatively quickly, despite the high attrition, and built up an impressive arsenal of Armageddon Class Battlecruisers in readiness for future Ork invasions. But the Orks also created a new breed of warship from the scrap yards.

Ork freebooters and escort captains lurking in the scrap yards made miniaturised Kill-Kroozers from the hulls of damaged or destroyed Dauntless and Endeavour Light Cruisers. The Ork captains cunningly able to manoeuvre these more nimble Ork capital ships into positions they would not be expected to attack from, and unleashing more firepower than Imperial scouting patrols would be able to handle alone. Disappearing back into the depths of the junk before a response could be assembled. Ghazghull, recognising the tactical value in these warships, began reshaping the Ork fleet in preparation for the next awaited offensive on Armageddon.

When the 3rd War for Armegeddon broke out, hundreds of Ork Lite Kroozers poured out of the junk fields and emerged from the Warp, supporting the massive Ork assault spear-headed by 12 Ork Space Hulks. Battlefleet Armageddon was caught almost totally by surprise by the sheer scale of the attack, the Ork Lite Kroozers almost doubling the number of effective capital ships in the Ork fleet, each one able to easily match any Imperial light cruiser for firepower and were much more durable.
However, for the Armageddon Battlecruisers they were little more than target practice, as each was slow to manoeuvre for its apparent 'light' status and poorly protected against battleship-calibre weaponry. But the Lite Kroozers debut proved a deadly surprise for Battlefleet Armageddon, and the wider Imperium.

Ork Cruisers
The Hunched Back-Bone

Kill-Kroozer

Size: 5.1-6 KM long, 1.8-2.7 KM abeam at widest point

Crew: Unknown

Max Acceleration: Varries

Defences: Variable armour, Looted Void Shield.

Standard Main Armament: Varries

Standard secondary Armament: Shootas, Missiles and Kannonz (broadside, belly and spine mounted, undetermined numbers)

Auxiliary Craft: N/A

Lore: The Kill-Kroozer is the most common Ork capital ship known to the Imperium, and the most commonly sighted Ork vessel larger than an escort. These vessels often have very little in common with each other beyond being generally a similar size and lacking any sort of carrier capacity. These warships are quite simply the husk of a destroyed or abandoned Imperial cruiser that was been outfitted with additional weapons and armour, at the expense of reliability and manoeuvrability. They are simplistic, durable, and exceptionally dangerous warships to face without access to heavy firepower.

These ships were a constant menace to Imperial shipping during peace time, and are even more terrifying when operating in packs during Ork invasions, able to overpower most Imperial cruisers in a close-quarter engagement and shrug off blows that would be crippling to a ship of a similar size range in the Imperial Navy. Some gained truly fearsome repuations during the Gothic War, where Kill-Kroozers became an almost daily threat to convoy. One Ork Kill Kroozer, the Butcher, securing dozens of kills on Imperial Navy warships and transports: with 17 transports, 12 escrots, 5 light cruisers and the Lunar Class Cruiser Admiral Lenox confirmed among its victims.

The main weakness of the Kill-Kroozer is the short effective range for its size. Experienced captains, when not tied to protecting a convoy, can easily open the distance on the lumbering beast and slowly destroy the large cruiser from a safe distance. As such, the Kill-Kroozer very quickly becomes less dangerous and more vulnerable the more its opponent is able to manoeuvre.

Terror Ship

Size: 5.1-6 KM long, 1.8-2.7 KM abeam at widest point

Crew: Unknown

Max Acceleration: Varries

Defences: Variable armour, Looted Void Shield.

Standard Main Armament: Varries

Standard secondary Armament: Shootas, Missiles and Kannonz (broadside, belly and spine mounted, undetermined numbers)

Auxiliary Craft: Varries

Lore: The Terror-Ship is a variant of Ork Kill-Kroozer that dispenses with some of its firepower to make way for a crude form of void-craft servicing. These ships retain much of the characteristics of the traditional Ork-Kill Kroozer, but also play host to large swarms of Ork void vessels of all shapes and sizes. This makes them far more dangerous than their more common cousins, as this carrier capacity helps negate much of the range weakness that the standard Kill-Kroozer suffers from, allowing them to effectively engage a wider range of opponents.

A classic example of a Terror Ship attack was the attack on Mirrobel base in the Cyclopse Cluster of the Gothic Sector, where a pair of Terror ships were able to overwhelm the station, two light cruisers and several Imperial escorts with their combined firepower and strike craft capacity. Forcing the Imperial vessels into retreat and destroying the station for minimal damage in return.

Ork Battle Cruisers
Battleships in-waiting

Hammer Class Battle-Kroozer

Size: 6-7.9 KM long, 2.4-3.4 KM abeam at widest point

Crew: Unknown

Max Acceleration: Varries

Defences: Variable armour, Looted Void Shield.

Standard Main Armament: Varries

Standard secondary Armament: Shootas, Missiles and Kannonz (broadside, belly and spine mounted, undetermined numbers)

Auxiliary Craft: Varries

Lore: A Hammer Class Battle-Kroozer in Imperial Space in generally a terrible omen, and a sight that makes the blood of even the bravest and most determined Imperial captains run cold. These truly gargantuan vessels are the largest 'standard' warships in use by the orks and are regarded as the ultimate evolution of the Ork Kill-Kroozers and Terror Ships.

Each ships armament can vary as widely as their size. Some feature massed banks of looted Macro Batteries and Bombardment Cannons, some feature captured and modified Ork variants of the mighty Nova Cannon, and some are merely vast armoured shells for black clouds of Ork Strike Craft to pour out from. As horrifying as one Hammer is as an opponent, all Hammers normally herald the coming of more Orks, and sightings of them normally indicates the coming of an Ork Waaagh as an Ork captain able to upgrade their kroozer to such an extent will also have grown to such extent through fighting that they themselves will have built up a large following as a budding warboss. A Hammer is rarely found without a considerable escort of smaller kroozers and attack ships.

However, such ambition rarely ends there. At Armageddon, at least 4 Hammer Class Battle-kroozers grew into the size and firepower range of true battleships during the 3rd war for Armageddon, and dozens of Hammer Battle-Kroozers were present as part of the vast horde that attacked Battlefleet Armageddon. Each Hammer dwarfing the Armageddon Class Battlecruisers and proving a dire threat to the survival and success of the Imperial Navy in all theatres.

Ork Battleships
Heralds of the Waaagh

Deathdeala

Slamblasta

Size: 8+ KM long, 3-4+ KM abeam at widest point

Crew: Unknown

Max Acceleration: Varries

Defences: Variable armour, Looted Void Shield.

Standard Main Armament: Varries

Standard secondary Armament: Shootas, Missiles and Kannonz (broadside, belly and spine mounted, undetermined numbers)

Auxiliary Craft: Varries

Lore: The Orks lack a 'Class' of warship that can be called a battleship, but given the nature of Ork ships, constantly growing due to upgrades and tinkering from battle to battle, many individual Ork vessels can reach the point where they are classed as battleships. But the first four warships to be recognised as battleships were Deathdeala, Slamblasta, Kroolboy and Gorbag's revenge.

The largest and oldest of the Ork 'battleships' is the venerable Deathdeala. Originally spotted in the Armageddon sector as a Hammer Class Battle-Kroozer captained by Warboss Urgutz Dregrak, the ship gradually grew in size and power, growing eclipse the size and firepower of an Imperial Retribution over the course of 30 years of fighting a running battle with various battlegroups of battlefleet Armageddon. Gaining many new weapon batteries, including bombardment cannons. During the 3rd War of Aramgeddon, Deathdeala unleashed a devastating series of orbital strikes on the planet Armageddon, doing as much damage to Ork units as it did to Imperial defenders. This would also be the end of Warboss Dregrak's leadership over the vessel, as Deathdeala would be hijacked by Herman Von Strab just as the warboss teleported down the planet. Stranding the warboss on Armageddon with the angry victims of his bombardments.

The next most prominent was Slamblasta, which had an armament consisting almost entirely of Zzap cannons, mostly due to the fact the ship was originally built on the hulk of a derelict Gothic Class Cruiser. These Zzap weapons were extremely unreliable, even by Ork standards, and were often prone to mis-fire, but a broadside of them could vaporise nearly any opponent. When the Slamblasta reached battleship status, it was a truly terrifying opponent, able to take apart opposing battleships from great range with ease. The Slamblasta served a critical role in the 3rd war for Armageddon, able to cripple the system's defences from long range in a series of raids, permitting the Ork main force to proceed with relatively minor losses.

Kroolboy was known to Battlefleet Armageddon the longest of all the Ork battleships. It started life as a Terror ship, raiding and terrorising imperial shipping in and around the Armageddon Sector. Slowly growing into a Hammer Battlekroozer and eventually beyond into an Ork battleship. Either knowingly or unknowingly, this ship would weaken Imperial early response forces and lul local commanders into believing Ork activity in the area was merely piracy, allowing for a crippling element of surprise from the Orks during the 3rd War for Armageddon. The Kroolboy still haunts the battlefleet to this day.

Gorbag's Revenge was built on the hull of a captured Dominator Class Cruiser, and features the mighty Nova Cannon, vast arrays of weapon batteries and huge hanger bays capable of unleashing Ork strike craft in their thousands. The ship remains one of the most powerful and reliable assets in the Ork arsenal in the Armageddon sector, the ship having an impressive kill tally including dozens of Imperial capital ships.

Space Marine Strike Craft
Versatility and Excellence

Thunderhawk Gunship

Length: 26.6 metres (can vary depending on pattern)

Wing span: 26.6 metres (main), 9.6 metres (secondary) (can vary depending on pattern)

Crew: 4 (1 Pilot, 1 Co-Pilot, 1 Gunner and 1 Navigator).

Sub-light engine: 3 RX-92-00 Turbo-fan Combination Rockets.

Power supply: 1 Mars-pattern Plasma Fusion Generator.

Standard Armament: 1 dorsal mounted Turbo Laser Destructor or Thunderhawk-Class Battlecannon, 2 Mk-24K lascannons on attack wings, 2 Twin-Linked Heavy Bolters on forward fuselage, 2 Twin-Linked Heavy Bolters under wing tips (Can additionally carry up to 6 Hellstrike missiles, 8 plasma or melta bombs or a single torpedo in addition to up to 2 external fuel tanks for the combination rockets.)

Machine spirit: M33 Signus class

Troop capacity: 30 Tactical or Assault Marines plus their equipment, 20 Space Marine Devastators, 10 Space Marine Terminators or a single Space Marine Dreadnought.

Warp capable: no

Lore: The Thunderhawk gunship is the strike vessel most commonly used, and most iconic, among the Space marines. It is just under 30 metres long and fills the role of a multi-role void craft and interceptor that can fill a wide variety of roles. While it is not as common as it used to be, and was originally designed as a stop gap for wider use in the Imperium (from a design that was originally intended as a medium bomber/attack craft): given the rarity of the excellent Stormbird gunship and the notorious failures of the Wrath Class interceptor; it remains in service even now due to its incredible durability, reliability and versatility.

The Thunderhawk has a permanent crew of four: the pilot, co-pilot, gunner and navigator. The pilot doubles as the targeteer for any bombs or missiles (Originally there was a dedicated targeteer assigned to Thunderhawks, but the abilities of a Space Marine make this unnecessary.)

The Gunship has an armament of either a Turbo Laser Destructor (similar to the kind used as PD on capital ships) or a Thunderhawk-Class Battlecannon (a modified, completely auto-loading, version of the Baneblades main gun), 2 dorsal-wing mounted lascannons, 2 forward-wing mounted Twin-linked Heavy bolter turrets and hardpoints for up to eight bombs or six anti-fighter missiles and a torpedo hardpoint against its belly.

The ship also has the capacity to carry up to 30 space marines or a single dreadnought, also capable of carrying a dedicated land transport like a rhino or Razorback against its belly for further group support in place of a torpedo. The ship is also durable enough, and can be equipped with Melta charges, so that it can perform the Assault Boat role also. Deploying Marines directly onto opposing warships in the heat of battle.

These craft are better armed than Furies for their size and can be modified to specialise into certain roles.
For example, some Thunderhawks have their hulls extended to better suit the transport/heavy attack craft role, these larger transporter Thunderhwaks able to carry several armoured vehicles into battle while still boasting good protection.
The high demand and expensive/complicated construction of Thunderhawks does however mean that only the space marines can regularly deploy them. The handful that exist in Navy service only being deployed in times of dire need.

Caestus Assault Ram

Length: 25 metres

Wing span: 28 metres

Crew: 1

Sub-light engine: 3 RX-98-25 Turbo-fan Combination Rockets.

Power supply: 1 Mars-pattern Plasma Fusion Generator.

Standard Armament: 2 Firefury missile launchers (with 11 cluster warheads in each), 1 Twin-Linked Magna-Melta

Machine spirit: M31 Signus-Minoris class

Troop capacity: 10 Tactical or Assault Marines plus their equipment, 6 Space Marine Devastators, 4 Space Marine Terminators.

Warp capable: no

Lore: The assault ram is the dedicated assault boat and dropship transport of the Space Marines. It is not much smaller than the thunderhawk at around 25 metres, but can only carry a maximum of 11 marines including the pilot due to the immensely thick armour and massive engines the assault ram is equipped with.
The design is less about getting large numbers of marines to a battlefield, and more about surgically inserting marine assault teams deep within enemy battle lines and onboard large capital ships. The very nimble and incredibly tough assault ram able to ensure all 11 marines arrive at their destination fully equipped and uninjured.
It is as old as the Thunderhawk, entering widespread space marine service in M31, developed by the Space Marines as a combat insertion vessel into highly dangerous areas.

The ship is armed with no PD, it’s defence being its fighter-like speed and mobility as well as immensely thick armour plating, but does carry offencive armament for breaching fighter screens and/or clearing an LZ for the Space Marine Cargo. It is armed with 2 firefury missile launchers with 11 cluster warheads in each and a centrally mounted Magna-Melta Cannon: which serves the dual purpose of creating a breach in a ship’s armour (like Melta charges) and can be used to destroy armoured targets or hardpoints on the ground.

Space Marine Escorts
Stalwart Defenders

Gladius Class Frigate

Size: 1.8 KM long, 0.5 KM abeam at the wings

Crew: 19,000

Max Acceleration: 5.4 g

Defences: Faramite-alloy armour plating, 1 Escort class Void shield.

Standard Main Armament: 2 double-barrelled laser-based sub-macro turret (dorsal/prow mounted), 10 laser-based sub-macro cannons (5 per broadside)

Standard secondary Armament: Turbo lasers, missile banks and autocannons (belly and spine mounted, undetermined numbers)

Auxiliary craft: 2 Arvus lighters

Lore: The Gladius is the most common void-ship in use with the Space Marines, it being one of the very few ships that sees use across almost all space marine chapters as a uniform combat vessel, even chapters that have little void presence still employing at least a couple of Gladius Frigates. This is largely due to the vessels role and capabilities.

The Gladius was developed in the closing years of the Great Crusade, an attempt by the Mechanicum to improve on the venerable Sword Class Frigate with a more powerful warship to fill the defensive escort role. The Gladius being larger, having much thicker armour, and a more impressive array of weapons. She even featured an engine system which increased her max sustained acceleration by approximately 20%. All these factors making the vessel far superior to the much older Sword design. However, the main fault with the frigate was also the reason it never saw widespread use with the Imperial Navy later in its history: it required more time and resources to construct. The Imperial Navy saw much more use in frigates that could be produced in great numbers than better quality frigates, and so demand in the navy for them was generally low, but for the space marines they were valuable system defence craft and skirmish vessels.

Most Space Marine chapters do not employ them as a means of projecting their power onto other systems, but as a means of protecting and patrolling chapter space, the Gladius being excellently well suited to dealing with low-mid level threats. The Gladius can also be a source of valuable fire support for marines on the ground, its impressive array of laser-based weapons more than capable of obliterating enemy strong points on the surface. However, despite the ships impressive capabilities as escorts, they are extremely vulnerable to larger threats. Having only a relatively small crews with very few Space Marines among them, and their impressive armour for their size ultimately counting for very little when faced with battleship-calibre weaponry. Their own firepower not able to contest the armour of most line cruisers.

Nova Class Frigate

Size: 1.9 KM long, 0.5 KM abeam at the wings

Crew: 18,000

Max Acceleration: 5.4 g

Defences: Faramite-alloy armour plating, 1 Escort class Void shield.

Standard Main Armament: 1 double-barrelled laser-based sub-macro turret (dorsal/prow mounted), 6 laser-based sub-macro cannons (3 per broadside), 1 Light Lance (prow mounted)

Standard secondary Armament: Turbo lasers, missile banks and autocannons (belly and spine mounted, undetermined numbers)

Auxiliary craft: 2 Arvus lighters

Lore: The Nova is the aggressive cousin of the defensive Gladius Frigate. While the Gladius is a common and widely accepted ship by the Space Marines and wider Imperium, the Nova is much more rare and highly controversial in nature. It is the only vessel the Space Marines use that is equipped with a lance weapon, and although it is a relatively small vessel with fewer overall weapons than the Gladius and a small crew, the Imperial Navy takes great issue with the ships existence.

The Nova is supposed to be a light attack vessel, patrolling and surveying the domains of some of the larger Space Marine Chapters to seek out adversaries and swiftly dispatch them with its Light lance to avoid the deployment of more Marines than is absolutely necessary and ensure battles are ended quickly and cleanly with minimal losses. However, the Space Marine fleet is not meant to possess any lance weapons, as the primary fleet of the Imperium should have a monopoly on the weapon systems. How or why this Frigate was developed despite this sentiment is unknown, and the ship is tolerated due to its good performance in battle and relatively low threat. The Nova being easily overpowered by larger warships. But the Nova Frigate is a cause for much tension between the Space Marine Chapter Fleets and the rest of the Imperium.

The Nova as a warship is ultimately a firestorm, but more powerful in every respect. With superior speed, armour protection and firepower. Although, due to the politics surrounding the vessels, very few exist and are used almost exclusively by the very largest and most well-trusted Space Marine Chapters.

Hunter Class Destroyer

Size: 1.6 KM long, 0.3 KM abeam at the wings

Crew: 16,000

Max Acceleration: 7.8 g

Defences: Faramite-alloy armour plating, 1 Escort class Void shield.

Standard Main Armament: 1 double-barrelled laser-based sub-macro turret (dorsal/prow mounted), 2 light torpedo launch tubes (prow mounted)

Standard secondary Armament: Turbo lasers, missile banks and autocannons (belly and spine mounted, undetermined numbers)

Auxiliary craft: 2 Arvus lighters

Lore: The Hunter is a development made by the Dark Angels to emulate the success of the Cobra Class Destroyer used in vast numbers by the Imperial Navy. It is the smallest ship in use with Space Marine Chapter fleets, and features only a very light gun armament, but comes equipped with two torpedo launcher, very powerful engines and an enhanced Auspex suite.

The ship, despite being the smallest astartes vessel is still larger than the Cobra it is based on, and features an overall superior ship-to-ship combat capability thanks to its laser-based weapon and vastly improved armour protection. This means the Hunter is actually capable of fighting off most escorts in single combat, and still possess the torpedo armament and speed to pull of deadly torpedo runs on enemy capital ships. The Hunter's sucess was such that it has since seen adoption outside of the Dark Angles chapter fleet, and now sees extensive use with a long list of Space Marine Chapters, now the second most common space marine vessel behind the well known Gladius Frigate.

Space Marine Cruiser
Void-Borne Enforcer

Strike Cruiser

Size: 4.5 KM long, 0.5 KM abeam at the wings

Crew: 76,000

Max Acceleration: 4.5 g

Defences: faramite-alloy armour plating, 2 Cruiser Class Void shields.

Standard Main Armament: 1 Bombardment Cannon Turret (dorsal/prow mounted), 8 macro cannons (4 per broadside), 1 Large Hanger bay (prow) and either a Prow Lance (very rare), Prow Nova Cannon (even more rare) or 6 Prow Torpedo Tubes.

Standard secondary Armament: Turbo lasers, missile banks and autocannons (belly and spine mounted, undetermined numbers)

Auxiliary craft: Varies (depends too heavily on chapter of origin to generalise)

Lore: The Strike Cruiser is a design that hails from a time when the Imperium was still young and the Emperor walked among mortal men. The cruiser was then used extensively with the various legions of astartes and the Imperial Armies Naval wing in the re-conquest of humanities lost territories across the galaxy. During that time, the Strike Cruiser was common. The Cruiser being a small, but well armed and armoured craft that could rapidly respond to and swiftly crush threats to the Imperium's rapidly expanding domain. During the Heresy, they would prove the bane of poorly defended Star systems and convoy operations, able to run down and obliterate fleets of smaller vessels, carry out orbital assaults, and evade retaliation from larger and more ponderous foes. All sides made use of the Strike Cruiser, and as such much of the capital ship casualties of the era were among the Strike Cruisers.
In the modern Imperium, the Strike Cruiser is no less deadly, but far less common. Now only the Space Marine Chapters, fragmented from their old legions, still hold onto the ancient cruisers.

Now the Strike Cruiser is the most commonly seen Space Marine vessel outside of their escorts, and certainly the most commonly seen Space Marine vessel during any sort of offensive. The Strike Cruiser being the perfect vessel: with its impressive combat abilities, speed and armour; to spread the influence of even the smallest chapters far beyond their local systems and provide their service to the wider Imperium. The Strike Cruiser especially shines during planetary invasion and assisting the Imperial Navy in chasing down targets of priority. A single Strike Cruiser producing the results of a whole Imperial Navy task-force with seemingly contemptuous ease when performing such tasks.

Some Strike Cruisers (usually only belonging to the largest and most space-faring of chapters whom the Imperium trusts), are even outfitted with lances and Nova Cannons, making them quite possibly the most deadly man-made ship of its weight-class. The ship is also extremely durable, having massively thick armour covering every visible surface, and two layers of the most advanced void shielding the Imperium can provide. The Strike cruiser also has an impressive carrier capacity, capable of carrying whole squadrons of the formidable Thunderhawk Gunship and great hosts of smaller or less powerful craft the chapter sees fit to use.

To add to this versatility, some Strike Cruisers have their weapons-load and shielding reduced in exchange for more powerful engines and augur equipment, creating what is essentially a light-scout variant of the Strike Cruiser. Less effective as a combat vessel, but more able to detect danger and respond to faster opponent's attacks. This modification is refereed to as the Vanguard Sub-Class of Strike Cruiser.

The only thing the Strike Cruiser suffers from is its rarity. For a ship intended to operate in packs, it has since become exceptionally rare to find more than a single Strike Cruiser among the vast majority of Space Marine Chapters. Only the very large and the very fortunate possessing more, and rarely deploying them in large numbers. This rarity is largely due to the inability of the Imperium to replace Strike Cruiser losses, and thus a Strike Cruiser can often find itself overwhelmed if it finds itself fighting too many opponents at once, and its loss is often catastrophic for the parent chapter and a sour loss for the Imperium at large. Although, larger chapters would normally deploy their Battle Barges if such a large threat exists that their Strike Cruisers cannot overcome it, although even then: mobility can be its own protection.

Space Marine Battleship
Relics of a Lost Era

Battle Barge

Size: 8 KM long, 3 KM abeam at the wings (can vary massively, different battle fleets and even fleet admirals refitting and purpose-building unique and highly customised warships)

Crew: 165,000

Max Acceleration: 1.5 g

Defences: faramite-alloy armour plating, 8 battleship class Void shields.

Standard Main Armament: 10 Heavy 'Titan Forge' Macro Cannons (5 per broadside), one large hangar deck (prow), 4 Bombardment Cannons (dorsally mounted), 6 Super Heavy Torpedo Launchers (prow) (sometimes, very rarely, equipped with prow Nova Cannon and/or dorsal lances)

Standard secondary Armament: turbolasers, missile banks and autocannons (belly and spine mounted, undetermined numbers)

Auxiliary craft: Varies heavily depending on Chapter

Lore: The Battle barge is the largest, and by far most powerful, warship in service with the Space Marines. They are true battleships, easily able to stand up to any competing warship in their weight class and likely not only survive the encounter, but leave the opponent as a smouldering hulk.

The term Battlebarge is old, existing before and beyond written or living memory, and these vessels have loyally served the Imperium as heavy assault vessels since the conception of the empire of man. The Battlebarge was the perfect vessel for the Great Crusade. Its large imposing shape often being enough to inspire fear and respect in newly subdued populations, while its heavy weaponry and transport capacity made it perfect for orbital assaults, its thick hide shrugging aside any resistance. The massed and brutal assault of Stormbirds from the great hull of a Battlebarge enough to subdue whole star systems in the majority of cases.

During that time, the Battlebarge was not a class but merely a designation for battleships in service with the legions and the expansion fleets, although the Battlebarge has since evolved to become recognised as its own separate class, distinctively different from Imperial Navy Battleships. For one they normally lack Lances, the Imperial Navy trusting only the most loyal of chapters to possess such warships. The Battlebarge instead having a whole battery of fearsome Bombardment Cannons. Less effective as long range ship-killers, but brutally powerful close range weapons with devastating stopping power even by battleship standards. They also normally lack the characteristic armoured prow, or Nova Cannons, of the Imperial Navy. Instead the ship opts for torpedoes and a large prow hanger bay to facilitate the close support of ground forces and to pursue fleeing opponents trying to stay away from the deadly Bombardment Cannons and Heavy Macro Batteries.

Although the Battlebarge is a mighty ship, it is also a lumbering beast, stricken by the short effective range of much of its weaponry. The Imperium is also no longer capable of replacing them, the ancient designs the ships evolved from simply beyond the Industrial or Technological capacity of the modern Imperium. Although, enemies of the Imperium would be hard-pressed to damage a Battle barge, as their armour is especially tough, multiple hundreds of metres thick at most points and devoid of external structural weaknesses that could be exploited. Although, this is equally as true for the Imperial Navy and Loyal Battlebarges, as many of the venerable vessels also operate in the services of the ruinous powers: and they are no less tough and deadly.

Imperial System/Auxiliary Vessels
Unsung and Unheard Heroes

Arvus Lighter

Length: 8.5 metres

Wing span: 8.2 metres

Crew: 1 (Pilot).

Sub-light engine: 2 RX-60-22 Rocket Engines

Power supply: 1 Bakka-pattern Plasma Fusion Generator.

Standard Armament: N/A (Can be outfitted to carry 2 Hellstrike missiles in addition to 2 Lascannons, Heavy Stubbers or Autocannons)

Transport Capacity: up to 12 Human passengers, or up to 30 tonnes of cargo

Warp capable: no

Lore: The Arvus Lighter (also known as "Little Pig", "Hog" or "Onager") is the most common and mass-produced void-capable vessel in the Imperium. These tiny craft acting as general purpose utility vessels for the Space Marines, Imperial Navy, AdMech, and various civilian and/or religious organisations. Their primary purpose is as transport shuttles. Able to carry up to 30 tonnes of Cargo either against their belly or in a spacious internal compartment making up most of the vessels mass.

The main notable features of the Arvus aside from its commonality and small size is their high relative speed and carry capacity. Just a few able to completely restock a large capital ship in just a few hours. Their mechanical reliability also makes them extremely trustworthy transports for living cargo. Almost every planet and battlefleet in the Imperium utilising Hogs as taxis for personnel too and from planets and between void ships.

In times of need, the Arvus Lighter can be used as a light fighter also. While lacking any armour, and being slow and poorly armed compared to the Fury Interceptor, their tiny size and good manoeuvrability does lend them advantages in tight spaces making them surprisingly useful combat vessels given the right environment and a competent pilot. They are even occasionally used by PDF forces as close ground support vehicles. However, such action is not standard or usually recommended, as the Arvus is most definitely not a combat vessel. Having only 15mm of steel protection, at best, rendering anyone foolish or desperate enough to field the Arvus as a fighter very vulnerable to even the lightest of enemy fire.

Aquila Lander

Length: 12 metres

Wing span: 22 metres

Crew: 1 (Pilot).

Sub-light engine: 2 x RX-40-08 Rocket Engines

Power supply: 1 Bakka-pattern Plasma Fusion Generator.

Standard Armament: N/A (Can be outfitted to carry 2 Hellstrike missiles in addition to 2 Lascannons, Heavy Stubbers or Autocannons)

Transport Capacity: up to 6 Human passengers (or 1 VIP), and/or up to 15 tonnes of cargo

Warp capable: no

Lore: These are lightly armed/armoured craft used by the navy to transport personnel and materials from ship-to-ship and ship-to-planet on a small or individual scale and, unlike the Arvus Lighter, is normally for more important people and materials due to its much smoother atmospheric transition and larger interior. The design is a very old one, having been virtually unchanged since the days of the Great Crusade and still remains one of the most reliable and enduring craft designs in Navy service. She features an improved aurgur array for detecting threats early in the form of incoming fighters or ground forces, an observation deck for the passenger's use and a single semi-traversable auto cannon or heavy bolter mounted in it's nose for limited self defence.
The Aquila also has folding wings, which make landing easier, but can also allow for emergency manoeuvres and surprising bouts of speed if the lander is threatened.

For the reason for her strong argur equipment and high potential speed, she is sometimes used as an advanced scout by the navy: able to quickly get in, provide accurate readings of enemy troop or fleet movements, and extract themselves before attracting unwanted attention. Although this is not done often, as the Aquila is usually treated as the private craft of VIPs.

Venom/Viper Class Sloop

Size: 0.7-0.9 KM long, 0.2-0.4 KM abeam at the wings

Crew: 13,000-20,000

Max Acceleration: 7.2 g

Defences: Singular-armoured adamantium prow, faramite-alloy armour plating, 1 Escort class Void shield.

Standard Main Armament: Turbo lasers or missile banks (belly and spine mounted, undetermined numbers)

Auxiliary craft: 1 Arvus lighter

Lore: The Viper and Venom class sloops where developed by battlefleet Calixis for system defence, scouting and anti-ordnance duties. They have powerful augur arrays and engines for their size (the smallest registered warships developed by the navy), allowing them to quickly get into position to detect enemy ships and extract themselves quickly without being detected.
The Viper is equipped with large arrays of turbo laser batteries along the spine and belly of the ship, while the Venom is equipped with mainly missile banks. These weapons are largely useless in ship-to-ship engagements but are excellently well suited for shooting down small strike craft and incoming torpedoes.

Many have their warp engines stripped away in favour of giving more power to their under-powered weapons suite, and most battle fleets do not bring them into battle, usually the sloops simply keeping watch over quiet backwater colonies and space stations. As such, they are firmly recognised as sub-escorts and auxiliary vessels by the Imperium at large. As even the humble Sword Class Escort makes laughably easy prey out of such under-powered vessels.

Cetaceus class transport

Size: 2.2 KM long, 0.6 KM abeam

Crew: 10,000 (upto 25,000 passengers)

Max Acceleration: 1.2 g

Defences: faramite-alloy armour plating, 1 Escort class Void shield.

Standard Main Armament: 4 Sub-Macro Cannons (prow/dorsal and prow/belly mounted), Turbo lasers, Autocannons and missile banks (belly and spine mounted, undetermined numbers)

Auxiliary craft: 27 Devourer Dropships, 2 Tetrarch Heavy Landers, 4 Arvus lighters

Lore: The Cetaceus Class Transport, or 'Whale ship', is the primary vessel used for the purposes of invading or liberating planets. Able to deploy whole regiments of gaudsmen onto a planet via devourer drop ships along with all the necessary equipment and hardware. The Whale is slow, large in size, and poorly armoured; although does have some defensive weapons, a void shield, and can sustain upto 70% hull damage before reaching 'compromised' status. As such, despite not being a warship, it is very difficult to stop a whale from deploying its cargo. And the Imperium always deploys dozens or even hundreds of whales during an invasion, and always with a hefty escort of far more formidable Imperial warships.

Devourer Class Dropship

Size: 0.4 KM long, 0.1 KM abeam

Crew: 100 (upto 250 passengers plus veichles)

Max Acceleration: 0.6 g

Defences: faramite-alloy armour plating

Standard Main Armament: 2 Heavy Lascannon turrets and missile banks (dorsal and spine mounted)

Auxiliary craft: N/A

Lore: Essentially an up-scaled landing craft, the devourer is simply a means for the Imperium to ferry troops too and from planets in large numbers. Able to carry just under a full companys worth of guardsmen and dozens of leman russ battle tanks. It also effective for deploying super heavies and/or artillery if the situation calls for it. They are typically deployed via whale to a planet, but can also be transported by larger Imperial warships. On rare occasions, they can also be used to ferry cargo, but this is normally viewed as wasteful as their are few vessels able to fill the planetary landing role quite as well as the Devourer.

Tetrarch Heavy Lander

Size: 0.6 KM long, 0.2 KM abeam

Crew: 150 (upto 900 passengers plus vehicles)

Max Acceleration: 0.6 g

Defences: faramite-alloy armour plating

Standard Main Armament: 3 Heavy Siege Cannon turrets (dorsally mounted), 1 Battle Cannon Turret (dorsally mounted) and Mega Battle cannon (prow mounted)

Auxiliary craft: N/A

Lore: The Tetrarch is a miniature warship in its own right, being massive in scale for a dropship, dwarfing even the Devourer, and featuring a menacing array of weapons able to make short work of any ground based positions in the landing zone. These landers are normally deployed where troops are most desperately needed and where resistance is at its heaviest. The Tetrarch able to lay down a carpet of fire that would cripple all but the most determined counter attacks and deploy nearly a whole regiment of guardsmen to the surface along with all their equipment and vehicles. The Tetrarch can even opt to deploy gravatic hooks, which allow guardsmen to simply step off the craft from atmospheric orbit and 'float' down to the surface if a suitable landing zone for the large vessel cannot be found. Although such a manoeuvre requires the ship to stay relatively low to the ground and stationary, rendering the vessel highly vulnerable to heavy fire from the ground.

System Monitor

Size: 1.8-2 KM long, 0.4-0.6 KM abeam at the wings

Crew: 30,000-45,000

Max Acceleration: 1.9 g

Defences: Singular-armoured adamantium prow, faramite-alloy armour plating, 1 Escort class Void shield.

Standard Main Armament: Heavy laser lance (prow mounted) or Heavy Macro Cannons (Variable number, broadside mounted)

Auxiliary craft: 2 Arvus lighters

Lore: Defence monitor is a general term to describe an escort-sized ship that mounts weapons far above what would normally be found on a ship of its weight class.

The most typical Monitors fit either a Heavy Lance, typically mounted in the Prow although sometimes in a large dorsal turret, or a number of Heavy Macro Cannons ranging from 8 to 14 guns total. These weapons are more than capable of presenting a dire threat to low level incursions into Imperial Space, and in sufficient numbers can be valuable assets to fleets acting in defence of important planets.

However, in order to possess such weapons Monitors surrender the ability to make warp jumps, and all of the speed and mobility ships of that size typically have, and they are not significantly better armoured or shielded to cover this weakness some variants even lacking void shields entirely. This makes them glass cannons in the purest sense, while they can provide valuable additional firepower, they rarely survive an engagement for long after initial blows are exchanged.

Tau Strike Craft
Improvised killers

Barracuda Supremacy Fighter

Length: 14 metres

Wing span: 16 metres

Crew: 1 (Pilot).

Sub-light engine: 2 Ion-Thrust engines

Power supply: Cold-Fusion Plasma Generator.

Standard Armament: 1 Nose-Mounted Ion Cannon, 8 Wing Mounted Missile Tubes, 2 Drone-Controlled Burst Cannons

FTL capable: no

Lore: The Barracuda is the most common fighter craft known to be in regular use with the Tau. In the Void-fighter role, its small size and high mobility make it exceptionally difficult to target and hit with conventional weapons, only made worse by the skill of Air Caste pilots and the sophisticated early warning systems built into the craft. However, they are slow by void-craft standards, meaning a Barracuda caught out of position is unlikely to escape the claws of an enemy.

In terms of firepower, they lack the raw power of some of their larger competitors, but a single shot from its nose-mounted Ion Cannon or a single of its missiles is more than capable taking down on of the Imperial Navies Fury Interceptors or its equivalents.

This grizzly fact coming to surface during the disastrous Damocles Crusade, where the Barracuda proved its deadly potential by inflicting horrific damage on the Imperial Air and Void fighter fleets across numerous engagements. The Navy repeatedly prevented from securing air supremacy, and endlessly harassed at every step by Barracudas and Mantas. Although the Barracuda was not meant as a Void Craft, they have certainly carved out a name for themselves among Imperial veterans.

Manta Missile Destroyer

Length: 35 metres

Wing span: 60 metres

Crew: 8 (Pilot, Gunners. Sometimes also a Commander and/or Ethereal).

Sub-light engine: 2 Heavy Ion-Thrust engines

Power supply: 2 Cold-Fusion Plasma Generators.

Standard Armament: 2 Wing-Mounted Heavy Railguns, 6 Wing-Mounted Ion Cannon, 10 Nose-Mounted Missile Tubes, 16 Drone-Controlled Burst Cannons. Can use transport capacity to carry up to 40 Heavy Anti-Shipping Missiles, Anti-Shipping mines, or 2 Anti-Shipping Gravatic Torpedoes

Troop Capacity: Upto 188 Fire Warriors, 24 Gun Drones, or 12 Heavy Weapon Drones, or 44 Kroot Warriors, 4 Medium vehicles (Devilfish, Hammerheads, Sky rays or Piranhas) as well as 10 Crisis Battlesuits, or 5 Broadside Battlesuits.
Or alternatively 50 Crisis suits, 25 Broadside suits, 36 Heavy Gun Drones, 12 Drone Sentry Turrets and 12 Tetras.

FTL capable: no

Lore: The Manta is designed and built like a miniature warship, and to all intents and purposes it effectively is. Able to carry an entire Hunter Cadre into battle, pack the firepower of several tank companies into one craft, and pack enough anti-shipping weapon to crack open even the most well protecting of enemy vessels. It often takes whole Imperial Fighter Squadron's combined effort to successfully stop a single Manta from reaching their target, and often at a steep price.

While not as massive as the Star Hawk, the Manta makes more efficient use of its internal and exterior spaces. Having far greater firepower and protection than the larger vessel, although suffering from a slow speed just like its Imperial rival. In an attack on a capital, their are few things more terrifying than a flight of Mantas. Being almost impossible to stop, and able to devastate the hull of most ships in one pass. Failing that, they can deploy dozens of Battlesuits, and fire warrior breacher teams to board a vessel, and wreak havoc on internal system. A few Mantas even able to completely flood the decks of smaller capital ships with troops and battlesuits.

However, they were not purpose-built for this role, and despite being fairly well protected, they suffered heavily when pitted against some of the largest vessels in the Imperium. The lordly vessels simply shrugging aside their blows and rarely allowing many Manta's to return to their home bases. As such, Tau commanders are hesitant to join the Mantas as launch an attack on an Imperial fleet, as they usually would during a land based assault. As such operations are normally costly, and Tau Commanders would easily become the victim of an Imperial Fury or PD gunner.

Tau Escorts
The First Line

Kir'qath (Defender)-Class Frigate

Size: 1.8 KM long, 0.3 KM abeam at the wings

Crew: Unkown

Max Acceleration: 3 g

Defences: Armour plating of Unknown composition and Gravatic shielding.

Standard Main Armament: 1 Heavy Railgun Battery (prow mounted), 4 Gravatic Torpedo Launchers

Standard secondary Armament: Railguns and missile banks (belly and spine mounted, undetermined numbers)

Auxiliary craft: 2 Orcas

Lore: The Defender was built as a direct response to the Sword Class Frigates of the Imperial Navy, which seemed unstoppable as they rushed Tau convoys, obliterated huge numbers of defenceless transports, and slipped away with ease before the lumbering merchant defensive fleet could respond effectively. The defender, being the first true purpose-built escort in the still-young tau navy, being the first concentrated effort to halt these deathly raids.

The Defender was slow for an escort, managing only about 2/3rd of the acceleration of the venerable Imperial design, and was not as well protecting having inferior shielding systems and armour that was positively flimsy by comparison. The FTL capabilities of the Defender where also a disappointment. Only able to perform 6 short-ranged jumps with its Ether Drive before being forced to wait 15 Terran hours for a recharge, making the escort woefully under equipped for scouting or patrol duties.

However, as purely a close-defence vessel, the Defender was excellent. Having Gravatic Launchers and Heavy Rail guns able to contest with the Imperial escorts and pose a serious threat even to larger vessels when amassed in large groups. Such was their potency as defensive screening ships, that the Imperium was forced to send larger and larger vessels to oversee raids on convoys and assist the now struggling Sword Escorts that merely decades before made short work of whole groups of Tau ships.

This escalation eventually lead to surrounding Imperial Battlefleets launching fewer and fewer raids, for fear they would lose more than they would gain in such attacks. Much of the Tau Empires early success can be attributed to the Defender, as without the seemingly mediocre escort, expansion into Imperial held territory simply would not have been possible.

Later in the life of the Tau Navy, they still see use, although are now seen more as a liability due to their tactical inflexibility, but are still called upon to support some of the heavier Tau ships and protect important convoys travelling through the Empires growing domain.

Skether'qan (Messenger)-Class Starship

Size: 1.2 KM long, 0.4 KM abeam at the wings

Crew: Unkown

Max Acceleration: 5.1 g

Defences: Armour plating of Unknown composition and Gravatic shielding.

Standard Main Armament: 1 Heavy Railgun Battery (prow mounted)

Standard secondary Armament: Railguns and missile banks (belly and spine mounted, undetermined numbers)

Auxiliary craft: 2 Orcas

Lore: The Messenger was never intended to be a combat vessel, but as the only true scout vessel available to the fledgling Tau Navy, its role in battle was instrumental to their success. The Messenger was, and still is, the smallest and fastest vessel to be fitted with a Ether Drive. Its weapons and protection are purely token, meant to deter an attacker long enough for the Messenger to escape, but the ship does feature some of the most advanced targeting and data handing equipment of the Tau Navy. Meaning the Messenger in battle assist by relaying targeting data to larger ships and screening against bombers, while the larger warships swat aside anything that might aim to destroy the small escort.

The ship is also a favourite for diplomats of the Water Caste. Able to slip in and slip out of naval blockades, and offer just enough firepower to convince an opposing party that an agreement favourable for the empire is wise. Such craft being seen used in gun-point diplomacy in many systems throughout the region.

Kass'l (Orca)-class Gunship

Size: 1.5 KM long, 0.3 KM abeam at the wings

Crew: Unkown

Max Acceleration: 4 g

Defences: Armour plating of Unknown composition and Gravatic shielding.

Standard Main Armament: 1 Heavy Railgun Battery (prow mounted), 1 Ion Cannon Battery (prow mounted)

Standard secondary Armament: Railguns and missile banks (belly and spine mounted, undetermined numbers)

Auxiliary craft: 2 Orcas

Lore: The Orca was the second true escort class to be developed by the Tau Navy, to further increase the power of the growing merchant fleet with effective escort ship designs. The Orca design was an improvement over the Defender in that it was smaller, increasing survivability, more effective sublight engine systems and traded away the slow-moving gravatic torpedo systems with a highly destructive Ion Cannon Battery for anti-escort duties. The ineffective Ether Drive was also gutted, the Earth Caste instead inventing an innovative new way of deploying the defensive escorts: Gravatic Hooks. This meant that Orcas could be tethered to larger ships, which had Ether Drives, and be deployed to where it was needed alongside the capital ships of the merchant navy to defend convoys moving through enemy space.

Although this greatly improved the capacity of the new Tau Navy to deploy effective counter measures to Ork and Imperial raids, the new Orcas also lacked even the limited versatility of the Defender and were very reliant on their mother ship to swing battles in their favour while they acted as defence. Not able to move from a system without a parent vessel, many Orcas would also be left stranded in the event their capital ship is damaged or destroyed: although the presence of Orcas did make such an event much less likely to occur.

Kir'la (Warden)-Class Frigate

Size: 1.6 KM long, 1.8 KM abeam at the wings

Crew: Unkown

Max Acceleration: 4.1 g

Defences: Armour plating of Unknown composition and Gravatic shielding.

Standard Main Armament: 2 Heavy Railgun Turrets (dorsal/Wing mounted), 2 Ion Cannon Batteries (Prow Mounted)

Standard secondary Armament: Railguns and missile banks (belly and spine mounted, undetermined numbers)

Auxiliary craft: 2 Orcas

Lore: The Warden represents a radical shift in Tau ship design away from refitting existing civilian designs and towards purpose-built warships. Previous escort designs in the Defender and the Orca, while radical for their time, and important for the Tau Navies development, where virtually indistinguishable from the transports they defended. This was no accident as the Earth Caste, looking to make most efficient use of resources and optimise the vessels for defence of convoys, where effectively refits of existing civilian freighters and cargo lighters. This made the perfectly optimised for their intended roles, often mistaken for the very cargo vessels they protected and catching assailants by surprise as they descended on 'undefended' convoys.

But as traditional escorts, they proved woefully mediocre vs their competition. Imperial designs outclassing them in every regard, and Ork designs simply overpowered them with brute force. The Warden was designed specifically as a counter to competing escort designs, to address the capability gap Tau commanders where painfully aware of.

The Warden still required a parent ship to be deployed, but once deployed to an area they where more than capable of operating as independent escort squadrons. Having a massive array of weapons for an escort vessel, larger firing angles, better armour protection, and by far the most powerful engines equipped to an escort in the Tau Navy by that point.

The first encounter by the Imperium occurred immediately after a raid on Tau convoys bound for the Damocles Gulf from Dal'yth to honour a trade agreement made in secret to a local governor. A group of 4 Sword Class Frigates known as the 'Red Prows' successfully engaged and destroyed several Tau convoys and their Defender escorts before running into three of the new Warden Class frigates which had been deployed via a Merchant Class Cruiser thousands of kilometres away.
The two sides engaged in a short and viscous firefight, which ended with neither side a clear victor. The Red Prows losing two of their number in exchange for one Warden destroyed and another Warden badly damaged, both escort commanders chose to disengage for repairs rather than continue fighting.

Although this was not a victory for the Tau empire, it was cause for celebration, as it proved the design was capable of trading toe-to-toe with Imperial escorts and come out of the engagement on potentially favourable terms. For Imperial commanders, it painted a grim picture of what was to come from the Tau Navy.

Kir'shashvre (Castellan)-Class Heavy Frigate

Size: 1.7 KM long, 2 KM abeam at the wings

Crew: Unkown

Max Acceleration: 4.1 g

Defences: Armour plating of Unknown composition and Gravatic shielding.

Standard Main Armament: 3 Heavy Railgun Turrets (dorsal and dorsal/Wing mounted), 4 Gravatic torpedo launchers (Prow Mounted)

Standard secondary Armament: Railguns and missile banks (belly and spine mounted, undetermined numbers)

Auxiliary craft: 2 Orcas

Lore: Continuing on from the success of the Warden, the Tau Fleet looked to increase the flexibility of its escorts, to have an escort class capable of long range scouting mission as well as combat duties now they had a design that could comfortably challenge the Sword and Firestorm Class Frigates in battle.

The answer to improving versatility was of course to fit an Ether Drive to the Warden, and grant them a weapon system more able to challenge the armour and shielding of larger Imperial ships. The Castellan was Earth Caste's final product, trading Ion Cannons for gravatic torpedoes more able to damage large capital ships, and increasing the number of wide-angle Railgun weapons for fighting escorts. The Castellan's Ether Drive being much improved from the Defender and Messenger Drives. Able to transport the large escort much greater distances with each jump, achieve more jumps, and require less time to recharge.

The Castellan first saw action above Taros, alongside the defected PDF fleet, against a large fleet of warships sent to deny the Tau the Imperial mining world. The Castellan not only was able to trade toe-for-toe with Imperial Frigates, but posed a dire threat to larger warships in large groups. Even able to pursue Imperial commanders back to their staging grounds and mount raids of their own, something that previously was beyond the capabilities of the Tau Fleet. The utter failure of the Imperial Navy at Taros proved to be a turning point for the balance of power in the region. From then on the Tau could take the initiative in void combat, and had warships able to strike back at the Imperium and consistently best their Imperial equivalents. Imperial Void supremacy over the Tau would never again be achieved, and dark times abound for the future of the Imperial navy in the region.

Tau Cruisers
Empire Workhorses

Il'fannor (Merchant)-class Cruiser

Size: 4 KM long, 1 KM abeam at the wings

Crew: Unkown

Max Acceleration: 1.9 g

Defences: Armour plating of Unknown composition and Gravatic shielding.

Standard Main Armament:
Ke'lshan Configuration: 2 Heavy Railgun Batteries (1 per broadside), 2 Gravatic Hooks (1 per broadside) and 1 Heavy Railgun Battery (Prow Mounted)

Dal'yth Configuration: 2 Heavy Railgun Batteries (1 per broadside), 2 Heavy Ion Cannon Batteries (1 per broadside) and 1 Heavy Railgun Battery (Prow Mounted)

Standard secondary Armament: Railguns and missile banks (belly and spine mounted, undetermined numbers)

Auxiliary craft: 6 Orca transports (Both Configurations) and 2 Kass'l (Orca)-class Gunships (Ke'lshan Configuration only)

Lore: Large, bulky, and never designed as a combat vessel. The Merchant Class was, for a long time, the only ship the Tau had which could be called a 'capital ship' when compared to their immediate rivals among the Ork war bands and Imperial Navy. The Merchant was originally built as a cargo hauler, meant to transport goods in huge bulk between star systems so that frontier colonies could be developed with the utmost speed, and garrisoned against enemy aggression. But, particularly when the Damocles Crusade began, it had become clear to the Tau military that the Merchant required a means of defence against enemy escorts that roved through Tau space with little to challenge them: a capital ship was needed, and the Merchant met the size requirements.

As a result, the Merchant was hastily converted into a warship. Its frame was covered in Railguns and thick armour plates, and it received a gravatic shield generator and more powerful Ether Drive. In combination with the development of the Orca Gunship, the Merchant was chosen as the means to deploy the new escorts by having gravatic hooks fitted to its port and starboard side. This meant that now a Merchant would always have a pair of escorts to defend the large capital ship, in combination with an extensive battery of capital-ship calibre weapons.

Although this was more than enough to deal with convoy raids, the appearance of one or two merchants and their Orcar cohorts usually enough to either destroy an attacking force or force them into retreat, when faced with opposing capital ships the Merchant lacked any effective way of combating them or escaping the unfavourable engagement due to their cripplingly low sub-light speed and relatively short FTL range.

A perfect example was the ill-fated trade mission carried out by the Ura'kym Droma some time in M41. The ship had been involved in trade for two centuries up to that point, and had received its militarisation package to increase security during transit into Imperial-held space, when it ran into a pair of Dauntless class Light Cruisers patrolling the Damocles Gulf for activity. The resulting firefight lead to the destruction of the Merchant and both its escorts for only moderate damage to one of the light cruisers.

Appalled by this performance, the Dal'yth shipyards began fitting the Merchant with Heavy Ion Cannons more able to contest the capital ships of opposing factions instead of gravatic hooks. While this increased the ability of the Merchant to operate independently, and the invention of the Warden Class Frigate greatly improved the Merchants chances of winning a battle in the original Ke'lshan configuration, it was painfully clear that more dramatic changes needed to occur before the Tau Navy could truly operate effective capital ships.

Lar'shi (Hero)-class Cruiser

Size: 4.6 KM long, 0.8 KM abeam at the wings

Crew: Unkown

Max Acceleration: 2.1 g

Defences: Armour plating of Unknown composition Gravatic shielding and prow deflector shields.

Standard Main Armament:
Vash'ya Configuration: 2 Heavy Ion Cannon Batteries (1 per broadside), 2 Launch Bays (1 per broadside), 1 Heavy Railgun Battery (Prow Mounted) and 1 Heavy Gravatic Launcher (Prow Mounted)

Tol'ku Configuration: 2 Heavy Railgun Batteries (1 per broadside), 2 Launch Bays (1 per broadside), 1 Heavy Railgun Battery (Prow Mounted) and 1 Heavy Gravatic Launcher (Prow Mounted)

Standard secondary Armament: Railguns and missile banks (belly and spine mounted, undetermined numbers)

Auxiliary craft: 6 Manta Missile Destroyers, 24 Barracuda supremacy fighters, 6 Orca transports

Lore: The Hero was designed as a warship to counter the terror of the Imperial Lunar Class Cruiser. Tau commanders consumed by a desire to end the carnage of the Imperial Line Cruisers with a warship that could effectively challenge the Imperial designs.

The encounter that inspired the creation of the Hero was the Tau encounter with the Lunar Class Cruiser Graf Strupp which had been deployed to the area by Battlefleet Kronos to deal with rumours of xenos expansion and traitors consorting with alien emissaries. The Cruiser being the Battlefleet's only response to the claim, as the mighty battleships and battlecruisers normally sent to quell rebellions where locked in a long war with Hive Fleet Behemoth bound head-long for Ultramar. That being said, the Graf was no lesser vessel. Being equipped with a Nova Cannon, the venerable vessel had served with distinction under innumerable Imperial Captains since the Horus Heresy.
She made her presence known, and struck terror into the hearts of the Tau, by attacking several convoys all along the Damocles Gulf. Her final kill tally isn't known, but she is known to have destroyed at least one Merchant Cruiser and no fewer than a dozen Defender escorts.

The Hero was the result of this brief era of terrifying raids, a ship designed specifically from the ground-up to fight Imperial capital ships. The Hero was longer and slimer than the Merchant, to pack more weapons onto a ship with a smaller target profile. The Hero also featured a suite of anti-capital ship weapons which included launch bays, which carried a squadron of Barracudas and a squadron of Mantas each; a pair of Heavy Ion Cannon Batteries and a Gravatic Launcher. The latter-most weapon being a new design for a super-massive rail gun inspired by the awesome power of the Imperial Nova Cannon.
The Hero also saw revolutionary increases in her protection, with the addition of a forward deflector sheild able to direct enemy fire away from vessel and prevent would-be fatal shots from conecting with the ships hull.

The Graf would encounter a pair of the new Tau Cruisers during another raid on a small convoy near Mu'Gulath Bay, the Imperial Cruiser baited onto the Tau guns with empty transports. The fight from the very beginning proved the supremacy of the venerable Imperial design. The Lunar Cruiser easily capable of outrunning the Hero cruisers, and her own weapons more than capable of damaging the Tau vessels, although with difficulty thanks to the new defector shields.
However, fatal errors in judgement resulted in the Graf taking a crippling round from the Gravatic Launchers from both Hero Cruisers, setting the ship adrift in space and motionless. The Graf would be later recovered and repaired, but similar suppression tactics would never again be attempted against the Tau Empire.

Although the Hero had failed to be the equal of the Imperial Line cruisers, it did prove that it was a very capable cruiser that could hold its own in a fight. Future configurations would be made to make the ship less specialised as a capital ship killer and improve versatility, but the Hero would remain in service into the 42nd millennium and saw service during the Taros campaign alongside the more modern ships of the Tau Navy.

Il'Porrui (Emissary)-class Cruiser

Size: 3 KM long, 3 KM abeam at the wings

Crew: Unkown

Max Acceleration: 4.1 g

Defences: Armour plating of Unknown composition, Gravatic shielding and prow deflector shields.

Standard Main Armament:
Sa'cea Configuration: 2 Heavy Railgun Batterys (wing mounted) 3 Launch Bays (along the spine and prow mounted) and 2 Gravatic Hooks (wing mounted)

Bor'kan Configuration: 2 Heavy Railgun Batteries (wing mounted), 2 Launch Bays (along the spine), 3 Gravatic Torpedo Launchers (Prow Mounted) and 2 Heavy Ion Cannon Batterys (wing mounted)

Standard secondary Armament: Railguns and missile banks (belly and spine mounted, undetermined numbers)

Auxiliary craft:
Sa'cea Configuration: 6 Manta Missile Destroyers, 30 Barracuda supremacy fighters, 6 Orca transports and 2 Kir'la (Warden)-Class Frigates

Bor'kan Configuration: 4 Manta Missile Destroyers, 20 Barracuda supremacy fighters and 4 Orca transports

Lore: While small for a light cruiser, the Emissary was the first vessel the Tau Navy built that could fill the role of light cruiser, and was a radical upgrade over the Messenger that it was intended to replace in the role of diplomatic vessel. The intention being to provide valuable tau personnel better protection in high-risk systems, or systems not completely compliant with Tau negations.

In the original Sa'cea configuration, this meant the ship itself relatively lightly armed (although still much better armed than the messenger) with only 2 wide-angel heavy rail gun batteries, but carried with it two of the deadly new Warden Class Frigates and enough strike craft to challenge a line cruiser or dominate most planets' airspace. In this configuration, the emissary was perfect as a diplomatic vessel, as it could perform its own reconnaissance, and send forwards its cohort of escorts and strike craft to clear a path for the delivery of its on-board diplomats with minimal risk.

However, its potential as a light cruiser detached from envoy duties was fully realised with the Bor'kan Configuration. This configuration giving the light cruiser a scary arsenal of strike craft, ion cannons and rail guns in addition to long-range Gravatic torpedo launchers. This configuration proved its effective during the Taros Campaign. Three Bor'kan Emissarys working in cooperation succeeded in disabling an Emperor Class Battleship with a combination of manta and torpedo strikes, swatting aside the much larger warship's escorts with their ion cannons and railguns, before boarding the ship with breacher teams and battle suits rendering the battleship dead-in-space. The Imperial fleet, without their flagship, was then forced to flee or risk being overwhelmed by waves of tau strike craft.

Lar'shi'vre (Protector)-class Cruiser

Size: 3.8 KM long, 4.8 KM abeam at the wings

Crew: Unkown

Max Acceleration: 3.9 g

Defences: Armour plating of Unknown composition, Gravatic shielding and prow deflector shields.

Standard Main Armament:
T'ros Configuration: 6 Heavy Railgun Batteries (2 prow mounted, 4 wing mounted), 2 Launch Bays (prow mounted) and 4 Gravatic Torpedo Launchers (Prow Mounted)

T'olku Configuration: 6 Heavy Railgun Batteries (2 prow mounted, 4 wing mounted), 2 Heavy Ion Cannon Batteries (wing mounted) and 4 Gravatic Torpedo Launchers (Prow Mounted)

Standard secondary Armament: Railguns and missile banks (belly and spine mounted, undetermined numbers)

Auxiliary craft: 6 Orca transports (both configurations), 6 Manta Missile Destroyers and 24 Barracuda supremacy fighters (T'ros configuration only)

Lore: The Protector, in both configurations, was the first true line cruiser the Tau Navy ever developed. Intended to replace the Hero Class Cruiser, the Protector was a radical redesign which maximised firepower and greatly improved over the older designs in terms of speed, mobility and protection.

While lacking the bulk or durability of Imperial line cruisers, it was more than capable of matching such vessels for firepower. Both configurations having a large number of Heavy Railgun batteries, strategically placed to maximise forward firepower at little expense of broadside firepower. The Protector able to cover very wide angles of fire with its weapon systems. To add to this flexibility, the T'ros brings strike craft for defensive and offensive purposes while the T'olku offers Heavy Ion cannons for greater concentrated firepower. However, lessons learned from the infamous Graf Strupp raids have taught the Tau to deploy their cruisers in pairs. In this way able to always ensure the upper hand over lone Imperial capital ships while maximising firepower and protecting vs swarms of lesser enemies.

The Protector was first encountered by the Imperium during the Taros campaign. Here the Protector proved its lethal potential against Lunar and Dauntless Class cruisers, and as they travelled in pairs they would also be a dire threat to larger vessels if left unchecked. Although Tau commanders preferred to use them as raiding vessels alongside Castellan Heavy Frigates, drawing away Imperial fleets with tempting targets of opportunity and Castellan harassment attacks, then using protector cruisers to slaughter the poorly defended convoys. These raids starved the Imperial front line of much needed Gaurd reinforcements and essential supplies in the form of food and ammunition. The protector cited as one of the main causes for the failure of the crusade against Taros.

Tau Battleships
Sphere Vanguards

Gal'leath (Explorer)-class Starship

Size: 8 KM long, 2.6 KM abeam at widest point

Crew: Unkown

Max Acceleration: 1.5 g

Defences: Armour plating of Unknown composition and Gravatic shielding

Standard Main Armament:
Vash'Ya Configuration: 2 Heavy Railgun Batteries (1 prow mounted, 1 Dorsal mounted), 4 Launch Bays (2 per broadside) and 3 Gravatic Hooks (Mounted Aft Section)

Bor'kan Configuration: 2 Heavy Railgun Batteries (1 prow mounted, 1 Dorsal mounted), 4 Launch Bays (2 per broadside), 6 Gravatic Torpedo Launchers (prow mounted) and 3 Gravatic Hooks (Mounted Aft Section)

Standard secondary Armament: Railguns and missile banks (belly and spine mounted, undetermined numbers)

Auxiliary craft:
Vash'Ya Configuration: 14 Orca transports, 16 Manta Missile Destroyers, 50 Barracuda supremacy fighters and 3 Kass'l (Orca)-class Gunships
Bor'kan Configuration: 8 Orca transports, 8 Manta Missile Destroyers, 25 Baracuda supremacy fighters and 3 Kass'l (Orca)-class Gunships

Lore: The Explorer is one of the very first space-worthy vessels the Tau empire ever created, also being the first ship in tau service to be given an ether drive, thus making the Tau Empire as it is known now possible. These massive ships where the first to deliver the Tau race unto worlds outside of what was accessible with sub-light engines. Their huge bulk intended to provide anything and everything the tau would need when encountering new ecosystems, or other empires, carrying vast amounts of supplies and personnel of all castes and kinds to expand the Empire's horizons. Charting new worlds, new star systems, and introducing new civilisations to the greater good.

As a warship, the Explorer was perfectly capable of defending herself against attacks from PDF forces or low and mid-level threats. Its comparatively vast number of strike craft and escorts allowing it to hold enemies at arms length while it plumbed them to wreckage with its high-angle railgun batteries. The Bor'kan configuration later developed to trade away some of its carrier potential to further increase the firepower of the Explorer with Gravatic Torpedo Launchers, to better deal with the tough line cruisers of the Imperial Navy.

However, when faced with the true born-and-bred battleships of the Imperial Navy during the Damocles Crusade, the Explorer was woefully inadequate. Lacking the speed, firepower or protection necessary to compete with the pride of the Imperial Navy. Many Explorers being slaughtered by Emperor and Retribution Class Battleships with contemptuous ease, unable to win a fight effectively at any range and unable to escape. This has resulted in the Explorer being no longer widely produced, although the ship still sees use. Partly as an honorary reminder of the great service it provided in birthing the Tau Empire, but also as a long range escort-support vessel.

Or'es El'leath (Custodian)-class Battleship

Size: 6.8 KM long, 6.8 KM abeam at the wings

Crew: Unkown

Max Acceleration: 2.9 g

Defences: Armour plating of Unknown composition, Gravatic shielding and prow deflector sheilds

Standard Main Armament: 9 Heavy Railgun Batteries (Wing and Dorsal Mounted), 2 Heavy Ion Cannon Batteries (Wing Mounted) 2 Launch Bays (Prow Mounted), 6 Gravatic Torpedo Launchers (Porw Mounted) and 3 Gravatic Hooks (Internally mounted)

Standard secondary Armament: Railguns and missile banks (belly and spine mounted, undetermined numbers)

Auxiliary craft: 10 Orca transports, 12 Manta Missile Destroyers, 42 Barracuda supremacy fighters and 3 Kir'la (Warden)-Class Frigates

Lore: The Custodian was the ultimate accumulation of all the Tau Navy's efforts to update and improve their fleet with radical redesigns. As it had become painfully clear that the Explorer was not capable of fulfilling the role of battleship for the Tau Navy, a vessel was needed that could challenge the Imperial Battleships, which despite the best efforts of the Tau remained the undisputed masters of the void in that region of space. Able to easily take apart any previous design for seemingly trivial damage in return, only concentrated Manta and Gravatic Torpedo strikes seemed able to drive them away, and only at great cost in vessels and personnel.

The Custodian provided a ship that was capable of withstanding the withering firepower of Imperial Battleships, and return with a brutal barrage of its own, all while retaining the strike craft and escort advantages of the old Explorer design on a much faster and more mobile warship.

The Custodian's baptism of fire came during the Taros Campaign, where 6 Custodian Battleships and defected Imperial allies engaged the Imperial liberation forces in open combat. The vessel was a horrifying surprise for Imperial admirals, who where convinced that the Tau had no true battleships, and ruthlessly chased down the Custodians at every opportunity leaving supply lines dangerously exposed to attack. Although the focus of the Imperial fleets on the Custodians did mean heavy casualties among these first Tau Battleships, it did also prove their strengths, as a couple where able to evade Imperial fleets and inflict heavy damage on opposing Imperial battleships in a withering barrage of railguns, ion cannons while striking out with Mantas and Gravatic Torpedoes at targets of opportunity.

After the Taros Campaign, the Custodian is used as a flagship vessel for Tau task forces, as well as a vessel for striking deep into enemy territory and disrupting supply chains. Custodians able to use stealth to slip behind Imperial frontiers in order to terrorise poorly defended worlds while obliterating Imperial patrol fleets and convoys.

Necron Strike Craft
Ancient Predators

Doom Scythe Attack Craft

Length: 12 metres

Wing span: 16 metres

Crew: 1 (Pilot).

Sub-light engine: Unknown

Power supply: Unknown

Standard Armament: 1 Death Ray, 2 Tesla Destructor Cannons (all mounted in an under-slung turret-array)

FTL capable: Unknown

Lore: The oldest, and easily one of the most powerful strike craft known to humanity, the Doom Scythe has ruled the void and skies over innumerable worlds long before any other race developed space flight. Unlike most Necron vessels, Doom Scythes operate far away from their parent fleets and tomb worlds, acting as advanced scouts and vanguard elements as both the first line of defence against intruders into Necron territory and the first elements of an invasion by a Dynasty.

In this capacity, the Doom Scythe has proven itself to rival even the Eldar race's Dark Stars and Raptors for sheer speed and mobility, while being more than capable of obliterating any opposing strike craft. The Death Ray able to even rip into the armour of un-shielded capital ships, unfortunate or particularly foolish captains having their ship torn to pieces by swarms of extremely mobile craft.

It isn't entirely known how it is powered, or how it propels itself with such incredible speed, but it is known that it's hardwired pilot is capable of collecting and processing billions upon billions of databased simulations of countless trillions of combat scenarios from the ancient war with the Old Ones, and apply appropriate manoeuvres to any and all situations. Performing it's manoeuvres with no concern for atmosphere or gravatic force, lacking any of the weaknesses of flesh-bearing pilot.

However, its open cockpit does present a structural weakness that skilled pilots could exploit. But failure to score a direct hit on the pilot likely wouldn't stop a Doom Scythe, as the thick Necrodermis armour simply regenerates any non-lethal damage taken. Only overwhelming firepower has proven reliable in stopping these craft, and the pilot never makes such solutions easy to fulfil.

Night Scythe Assault Craft

Length: 12 metres

Wing span: 16 metres

Crew: 1 (Pilot).

Sub-light engine: Unknown

Power supply: Unknown

Standard Armament: 1 Wormhole Generator, 2 Tesla Destructor Cannons (all mounted in an under-slung turret-array)

FTL capable: Unknown

Lore: The Night Scythe is largely the same as the Doom Scythe, and is normally deployed alongside the Doom Scythe in aggressive fleet-to-fleet or planetary invasion missions. The craft's main difference to the Doom Scythe is that it carries a captive wormhole instead of a Death Ray, allowing it to open a localised link back to a local Tomb World, large enough to support the transfer of necron warriors directly to a target location.

This method of troop delivery means that, unlike younger races, the night scythe does not need to be large and cumbersome to carry troops, and loses none of its fighter capabilities over the Doom Scythe while able to deploy vast numbers of troops onto opposing warships or onto a planet's surface. There is no known defence against such a delivery system. Prayer being all the Imperial crews can do when faced with massed Night Scythe attacks.

Night Shroud Bomber

Length: 20 metres

Wing span: 25 metres

Crew: 1 (Pilot).

Sub-light engine: Unknown

Power supply: Unknown

Standard Armament: 2 Tesla Destructor Cannons (Mounted in an under-slung turret-array), unknown number of Death Spheres (internally stored)

FTL capable: Unknown

Lore: In the event that Night Scythes and Doom Scythes are insufficient for destroying a target, the Night Shroud is deployed to reap its own terrible toll on any brave or foolish enough to resist the inevitable.

The Night Shroud is larger and better protected than most Necron strike craft, but unlike the bombers of younger races this bomber does not sacrifice its fighter-killing power. still possessing a pair of Tesla Destructors, and still capable of manoeuvres no living pilot can match. However, the true horror of the Night Shroud lies in its Death Sphere armament. Each being a containment device for a fragment of anti-matter, annihilating targets on the atomic level once launched at a chosen target. Anything not protected by heavy layers of void shielding very quickly ceases to exist under a bombardment of such weapons.

Necron Escorts
Raiders of a Lost Empire

Dirge Class Raider

Size: 0.9 KM long, 1.4 KM abeam at the wings

Crew: Unkown

Max Acceleration: No known limit

Defences: Necrodermis Armour and Scarab Swarms

Standard Main Armament: 1 Lightning Arc Battery

Standard secondary Armament: Gauss Cannons, Tesla Cannons and Scarab Swarms

Auxiliary craft: N/A

Lore: The smallest ship known to be in use with the Necrons, and of all the escorts in the galaxy the Dirge is among the least well documented and understood vessels. Believed to act as a scout and vanguard vessel for Necron Harvest fleets, these ships have proven to be deceptively powerful and difficult to an extreme to catch and destroy.
Its Necrodemis armour able to repair at an extremely rapid rate and retreat into a pocket dimension when threatened with overwhelming firepower. The Dirge also seems to defy any physical limits to its acceleration rate or maximum sustained acceleration, completely outclassing any vessel in the Imperial Navy for speed.

In terms of firepower, the Dirge's size is not to mistaken as weakness. The Lightning Arc Battery it is equipped with able to split its fire between multiple targets and render any and all defences pointless. Arcs of living energy snaking around and breaking apart warships as though they were little more than toys. Its only limit seeming to be a short range. A weakness that has proven nearly impossible to exploit due to the speed and durability of all Necron vessels.

The most well-documented combat scenario involve the Dirge Class was during the Yucatan Incident in M40. Farsight vanguard-squadron engaging a Necron fleet that they had been alerted to by the local colony of Merida. The battle plan being to send forward the Cobras to pin and harass the unidentified fleet so larger fleet assets could arrive to deal with the clearly larger and better-armed vessels. The plan failed at the first hurdle, a pair impossibly fast escorts later identified as Dirge Class raiders closed the distance before the Cobras could manoeuvre for a torpedo run, destroying 4 cobras in very short order before chasing down and destroying a 5th. The 6th destroyer only able to escape when her captain ordered an emergency Warp jump.

The later-recovered Black-box of the Light Cruiser Farsight, along with final transmissions from Yucatan PDF forces, painted a similarly grim picture of the performance of the larger vessels. The squadron wiped out in under an hour, and planetary defences overwhelmed for no damage to the opposing fleet. When a larger Imperial fleet, with battleship and battle-cruiser support, arrived in the system weeks later: the entire system was barren. The mysterious fleet long-gone. Aside from this incident, the Dirge has been spotted only a handful of times, but it is little solace to the unfortunate escort commanders who encountered them.

Jackal Class Raider

Size: 1.2 KM long, 1.6 KM abeam at the wings

Crew: Unkown

Max Acceleration: No known limit

Defences: Necrodermis Armour and Scarab Swarms

Standard Main Armament: 1 Lightning Arc Battery, Portal Array

Standard secondary Armament: Gauss Cannons, Tesla Cannons and Scarab Swarms

Auxiliary craft: N/A

Lore: The Jackal is the larger of the two known Necrons escorts, incorporating a portal array into its already deadly armament, allowing the vessel to open portals on opposing vessels and materialise necron warriors directly onto the decks of enemy warships and render vessels many times larger than the Jackal little more than helpless prey.
Just like the Dirge, the Jackal is impossibly fast and mobile, and has the same almost indestructible defences. Defences only breakable with overwhelming firepower that the necron escort could easily evade.

The Jackal is far more commonly seen than the Dirge, most notably seen in fighting during the Orphean War in M41, where several dozen Jackals of the Maynarkh Dynasty engaged with hundreds of Imperial Navy and Space Marine Escorts in the titanic Battle of Amarah. Although the battle was inconclusive for either side, and the Dynasty lost a significant number of its escorts, several Harvest Ships, and the near-destruction of one of the Tomb-ships leading the assault: the Jackals made a good showing, delivering far worse punishment on their competition. Successfully annihilating several full escort squadrons with their Lightning Arc Batteries before engaging and destroying the Flagship of the armada: the STC-grade Apocalypse Class Battleship Arica Dominus.

The loss of such a rare gem was catastrophic for Battlefleet Orpheus, which lost 70% of its total fighting force in the battle along with much of its leadership. The Battlefleet has since been dissolved, along with the Orpheus Sector, as several of its now-revealed tomb worlds where destroyed utterly by the retreating Naval forces to prevent the recovery and further advance of the necrons. Both sides of the conflict inflicting mortal blows on the other, from which neither the Imperium or the Mayharkh dynasty will ever fully recover from. But with the resurgent alien empire now in almost total control of the once proud Imperial Sector, and signs of necron aggression all along the Orpheus Sector Border, it would seem Kutlakh the World Killer is far from finished with his deathly duty in the Tempestus Segmentum.

Necron Light Cruiser
Mysterious lethality

Shroud Class Light Cruiser

Size: 3 KM long, 3.6 KM abeam at the wings

Crew: Unkown

Max Acceleration: No known limit

Defences: Necrodermis Armour and Scarab Swarms

Standard Main Armament: 2 Lightning Arc Batterys

Standard secondary Armament: Gauss Cannons, Tesla Cannons and Scarab Swarms

Auxiliary craft: N/A

Lore: The Shroud is on of the most recently discovered of the necron vessels by the Imperium, and the cause of the most chaos in the ordo xenos of all the necron discoveries. It first came into Imperial records in M41.992 when Battlefleet Pacificus reported a series of identical raids of orbital stations and patrol fleets arranged as part of the Hydraphur outer defences. The Necron vessels (or vessel, the nature of the raids makes it difficult to determine), recorded as being larger than a Jackal, but smaller than a Harvest Ship, launched attacks that crippled naval blockade or intercept actions and did significant damage to the Hyradphur defence parameter. But rather than launch an assault at the vital forge world, and HQ for one of the Imperium's largest battlefleets, they always faded away just as suddenly as they came.

The purpose of these raids at the time were unclear. Attacking such strong Imperial strongholds, without the intent on taking them, in repeated methodical fashion confused the Inquisition and Naval High Command equally. The Ordo xenos also puzzled over the purpose of such vessels in Necron fleet doctrine, for surely such capital ships were too small to be command vessels of Necron Lords, but too large and impressively powerful to be 'lowly' raiders? The doubled Lightning Arc batteries and greater mass of armour seeming unnecessary in the eyes of the Inquisition for its apparent raiding role, although it is theorised that their design is a relic of a war that ended long ago and their original purpose gone with it.

However, the answer to why the attacks on Hyradfur were carried out would soon become clear, as the Necrons were trialling and testing Imperial defences and the abilities of their Shrouds to infiltrate and penetrate the defences of major forge worlds. For six years later, Holy Mars itself was the subject of a lightning raid launched by five Shroud Class Light Cruisers. The Light Cruisers managing to penetrate deep into the sol system without being detected, Battlefleet Solar only detecting them once they had passed Jupiter, and were not able to catch the much faster necron vessels before they could reach the red planet. The attack would prove to be a suicidal one, however: as nova cannon batteries, heavy gatling macro cannons and trans-dimensional lances parted the thick smog and mists of Mars with the unfettered fury of the Machine God; ending 4 of the Light Cruisers before they could reach the planets surface. But one did land, shortly before being torn apart by the cyclone of firepower thrown at the raiding vessels, and not before the five had done significant damage to the ships and stations orbiting Mars.

The raid has worrying implications for Necron fleet capabilities, and what might lie beneath the surface of Mars to cause such a suicidal attack. Some Tech Priests have called for the carpet fusion-bombing of the whole area and its burial in ferromite, although there is still much argument over how best to react to the situation. Regardless of the outcome, it seems clear that nowhere is safe from a resurgent Necrontyr Empire.

Khopesh Class Light Cruiser

Size: 3.6 KM long, 3.8 KM abeam at the wings

Crew: Unkown

Max Acceleration: No known limit

Defences: Necrodermis Armour and Scarab Swarms

Standard Main Armament: 4 Lightning Arc Batterys, 1 Partical Whip Battery

Standard secondary Armament: Gauss Cannons, Tesla Cannons and Scarab Swarms

Auxiliary craft: N/A

Lore: The Khopesh, like many Necron vessels, is as deadly as it is poorly understood. And with the turn of a new millennium comes new and terrible discoveries about the composition and capabilities of the Necrontyr Navy. The ship surpasses the previously discovered Shroud Class in nearly every category, and more closely resembles that of a full cruiser (like the dreaded Harvester) than a Light Cruiser (of any kind).

The most striking feature of the Khopesh, upon its discovery fighting Chaos warfleets in the Agripinaa Sector; not far from the forge world Agripinaa itself, was its size and armament. The Khopesh was noticeably larger than the previously sighted Necron light cruisers, and from combat analysis it was shown to have a significantly more powerful armament than any vessel of comparable size known to the Inquisition. Combining a massed battery of Arc-Lightning weapons with a devastatingly powerful Partical Whip battery, that had previously only been seen in use on Necron capital ships. Such terrifying weapons able to render any defences totally worthless as they cleave effortlessly through any material that offends its master.

The Khopesh is also special for having abnormally thick layers of Necrodermis armour, even heavy Archeno-tech lances have been observed to have only very limited effect on these warships, weapons that are known to be greatly effective against other light necron vessels. Their effectiveness as combat vessels, needless to say, is therefore far beyond that of anything previously recorded in the 'Light' weight class.

The exact purpose of the Khopesh then, seems very clear; it is intended as pure-breed warship for the destruction of anything that threatens the Necrontyr Empire. As their uncommon durability and firepower marks them above that of even other necron vessels of the same weight class. Making it highly likely that, as the threat of Chaos is greatly expanded with the Fall of Cadia, ever more of these brutally efficient killing machines will be become an increasingly common sight. To the certain dread of all 'lesser' races.

Cartouche Class Light Cruiser

Size: 3 KM long, 3.6 KM abeam at the wings

Crew: Unkown

Max Acceleration: No known limit

Defences: Necrodermis Armour and Scarab Swarms

Standard Main Armament: 2 Lightning Arc Batterys, 1 Partical Whip Battery

Standard secondary Armament: Gauss Cannons, Tesla Cannons and Scarab Swarms

Auxiliary craft: N/A

Lore: The Cartouche, like the Khopesh, is a discovery made with the turn of a new millennium that promises only ill-tidings for the realms of man. This new light cruiser seeming to share similar mysterious lineage with the previously documented Shroud Class Light Cruiser. Although, with notable differences.

The Cartouche, after its initial discovery (the infamous '157' incident), has been revealed to have significantly greater firepower than the shroud in the addition of a horrifyingly powerful Partical Whip Battery. Further increasing the already formidable combat potential of the Necron light cruiser. In addition, the Cartouche appeared to have a silencing effect of long and short range communications. Meaning victims of a Cartouche attack are likely to be destroyed in total isolation from reinforcements, the Light Cruiser now theorised to be the culprit for many 'disappearances' in areas of space now known to be active Necron Dynastic territory.

This ability, combined with the natural near-supernatural mobility of all Necron vessels and the increased firepower; was used to devastating effect to render the Hive World of Ellestratum totally defenceless in the wake of a Harvester Fleet. Ellestratum was a moderately important Imperial world, home to nearly a hundred billion souls, and had a permanent picket fleet stationed in orbit alongside significant defensive orbital facilities. Against any conventional attack, these defences working in co-operation with the huge array of ground-based lance batteries, Hive City Void Shields and torpedo launchers; should have delayed an attacker long enough for a significant force from the local battlefleet to respond.

Perhaps realising this, or perhaps simply to reduce potential risk, the Necrons deployed a vanguard of Cartouche Light Cruisers ahead of the main fleet's arrival. These cruisers swiftly, in the time-span of hours, scoured the planet clean of the entirety of the it's orbital defences. Launchers and batteries were destroyed in their mountings, orbital facilities were left burning and gutted, while the tumbling hulks of the picket fleet fell upon Hive cities whose Void Shields offered no protection to the precise and deadly attention of the Necron Partical Whips. News of this massacre would not even reach Imperial Authorities until weeks later, by which point the planet more closely resembled a mass graveyard than the thriving hub of imperial industry it had once been.