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THE REDEMPTION Armageddon-class Battlecruiser (245 pts)
The Armageddon-class battle cruiser was borne from necessity during the desperate times following the Second Armageddon War, when the Techpriests of the Voss forge world and St. Jowen's Dock upgraded the systems of severely damaged Lunar-class ships in order to bolster the number of battlecruisers available to the Imperium. The modifications included a rebuilt dorsal spine that could support a pair of long-range lance turrets and enhanced power couplings to boost the range of the cruiser's other weaponry. The class achieved a modest degree of success, and would prove instrumental in turning the tide of Ork invaders during the Third Armageddon war. While a majority of Armagdeddon-class ships are converted from Lunar class cruisers, this is not a universal truth. Such is the case with the Redemption, which started her life as the Fearless. The Fearless was one of the oldest existing examples of the Gothic-class when she was sent as reinforcements to Admiral Parol's beleaguered forces in the Armageddon system. She was so ancient that her construction contained elements that are now commonly seen only in renegade vessels. By the time she arrived at St. Jowen's Dock, her original 3-barraled lance turrets had long since been replaced with better understood (and therefore more easily maintainable) ones of contemporary design, but her bridge still featured an antiquated profile. The Fearless was in the thick of action almost immediately, and her heavy lance armament took a heavy toll on the seemingly numberless Ork escorts in the area. However, during a battle with Ork forces the Fearless was heavily damaged by an improbable hit on her prow that pierced her Adamantium armor and detonated torpedoes that were stored in a ready magazine. The ship was racked with titanic detonations, but her ordeal was not over yet. Still reeling from the damage to her prow, the Fearless was rammed amidships and nearly cut in two by an unidentified Kill Kroozer that was leading the Ork fleet. However, a squadron of Falchion-class escorts avenged her by falling in behind the Kroozer as it attempted to come about and board the Fearless. The Falchions poured torpedo and weapons battery fire into the weakly protected rear of the Ork ship, causing it to detonate in a mighty plasma explosion before it could reach the hulk of the Imperial cruiser. With the destruction of one of their largest ships the rest of the Orks temporarily withdrew, allowing the Imperials the briefest of respites. The Fearless's Enginseers had managed to prevent the ship's reactors from entering end-stage overload by completing the Right of Deactivation before they were killed to a man by a loss of atmospheric containment in the ship's Engine Room. This prevented the Fearless from detonating like the Kill Kroozer had, and allowed the Imperial forces to recover her hulk. Loses amongst the ship's crew had been heavy; between those recovered from her Savior Rafts and those found still alive on board in pockets of atmosphere, there were only 3,573 survivors. The remains of the ship were towed to St Jowen's Dock, and then on to Voss. Upon her arrival at Voss, the Techpriests of the Adeptus Mechanicus gave her repairs a low priority due to the extent of her damage. It wasn't until the 3rd Armageddon War was almost over that the hulk of what had once been the Fearless was re-visited. The ship's after lance decks had been completely destroyed by the ramming attack. Her prow had been all but demolished by the detonation of the torpedo magazine. However, thanks to the sacrifice of the Enginseers the engines were in remarkably good shape, as were her targeting matrices and prognosticators. Thus, it was decided to save what was left, and after weighing their various options the Techpriests decided to upgrade the ship to an Armageddon-class configuration with a new prow. Lance turrets and their associated equipment were in short supply due to the on-going repairs of several Apocalypse-class battleships, thus it was not feasible to return the ship to a Gothic-class configuration. There was, however, a relative abundance of weapons batteries available, and this made a conversion to the Armageddon-class attractive. The repair work took the better part of a decade, and was not completed before the end of the Third Armageddon War. The ship that emerged was re-christened the Redemption, and bore a unique appearance. She retained the ancient bridge profile of her original construction, but now sported a Voss-pattern Aquilla prow. As she was built from a Gothic, she also has the unusual feature of having her lances forward of her weapons batteries. The defeat of the Ork invasion made her presence in the Armageddon sector superfluous, so she was re-assigned to Segmentum Pacificus shortly after her shakedown cruise was complete. From there, the Redemption was assigned as reinforcements to Battlegroup Fortitas, where she became the third battle cruiser in Admiral Ruckdog's expanding fleet. By Andy Rucker |
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