Nullships

Nullships,^2-p11 also known as Null-ships,^1-p135 are vessels used by the Imperium of Man.

The Inquisition's Null-ships are also known to had penetrated into the Eye of Terror where their arrays psychic shields made them invisible to the denizens of the Warp. Those crew that return from such journeys have their conviction renewed and hold nothing but hatred for the daemonic. Some, however, do not return from these voyages and are damned as both their physical and spiritual forms suffer torment at the hands of the cruel creatures of the Immaterium.^1-p135 The original and older series of nullships are known to had been constructed as an act of desperation and were believed to be the best that could be built at their time.⁵

Through irregular nullship probes, the Inquisition maintain a watch upon the systems within the eye of Terror. These spy vessels are hidden behind their screening shields and psychic barriers whilst they use their massive sensor arrays to take physical readings of the worlds within the warp filled region of space. This allows them to collect data on the Traitor Legions various bases and fortresses. Specially trained psykers that are monitored for signs of Chaos contamination are attached to these expeditions who monitor the thoughts and feelings of the Traitor Legionnaires. Despite this account, much of this information gathered is fragmentary and many of them are lost to the natural hazards within the Eye or are the ships are destroyed by the psyker crews being driven insane by the images they have witnessed or even taken prisoner by boarding actions by the Traitor Legions.^4-p244

Despite this being the case, such ships are periodically sent by the Inquisition where they raced through nebulas along with probeships that bore psyker adepts that could span on the cursed worlds within the Eye of Terror. Though filled with peril, some element of information is retrieved during such scouting runs that is later placed within the records of the Ordo Malleus.^3-p67 Such vessels are used by the Adeptus Mechanicus Exploritas who launched them deep into the Eye of Terror where they sent information of the events that occured in that realm. Their discoveries were known to had sent shockwaves in the higher levels of the Imperium which led to the High Lords of Terra debating long and hard on what action to take against this threat.^2-p11

By the 41st Millennium, it had been more than a hundred seventy-eight years since the last nullship had been sent into the Eye of Terror. Prior to this point, there had been twenty such spy ships that had been dispatched though none had returned or had sent anything back that was useful. At this time, the prophetic visions of a Psyker imprisoned on Mars attracted the attention of Magos Technicus Ipsissmus who decided on constructing a new class of nullship that had ten times the screening of the older model, would be larger and better armed, had the capacity to carry more fighting men and would have the ability to travel the entirety of the Eye of Terror without being detected. He arranged a meeting with the Inquisitorial Representative about launching an expedition into the Eye to ascertain the details of the Psykers prophecy with the mission being accompanied by a Librarian of the Purple Stars Chapter of the Adeptus Astartes The expedition and a follow up mission determined the rise of a Black Crusade within the Eye of Terror.⁵

Sources

• ¹:Warhammer 40,000 4th Edition Rulebook, pg. 135
• ²:Imperial Armour Volume Three - The Taros Campaign, pg. 11
• ³:Inquisition War Trilogy (Novel Series) Omnibus Draco, pg. 67
• ⁴:Realm of Chaos: Slaves to Darkness, pg. 244
• ⁵:Eye of Terror by Barrington J. Bayley, Chap. 1