Enduring Blade
The Enduring Blade was an ancient Emperor Class Battleship, which served the Emperor faithfully for millennia and was the flagship of Battlefleet Ultima Primus.
History
As the Enduring Blade patrolled the Ultima Segmentum, it was contacted by Meyloch Severus, the Planetary Governor of Dolumar IV, with a request that he claimed would benefit the Imperium. Severus needed help in capturing a Tau Ethereal, from the nearby colony of Kuu'lan, which would allow the Governor to study what he believed was their psychic abilities. The Enduring Blade had two companies of Space Marines stationed aboard it: Captain Jehnnus Ardias's Third Ultramarines Company and Captain Mito's Fifth Raptors Company. Knowing by their reputation that they would be more inclined to help, Severus asked Captain Mito for his assistance.[1a]
Mito agreed and a squad from his Company attacked the nearby colony of Kuu'lan and captured the Ethereal Ko'vash; who was then delivered to Dolumar IV's vast prison complex. Once word reached the Tau, they retaliated by attacking Dolumar IV and freeing Ko'vash from the prison complex[1a]. While the Tau attacked his world, Severus would contact the Enduring Blade for help and it would bring Battlefleet Ultima Primus[1b]. Once there the fleet attacked and then boarded the Tau warship Or’es Tash’var, in order to capture the ship and the recently freed Ko'vash.[1a]
To the Imperial Navy's surprise their boarding attack was beaten back by the Tau and a large group of Tau warships arrived and attacked them their outnumbered fleet. With momentum on their side, the Tau boarded the Enduring Blade in large numbers[1c] and Lord Admiral Benedil Constantine was pressured to open diplomatic talks. The Etheral Ko'vash would come aboard with an armed escort to begin the diplomatic talks, but they wouldn't get far before the Planetary Governor of Dolumar IV, Meyloch Severus, barged into the room and declared there would be no peace talks between the Tau and Imperium. As the Admiral tried to get him to be quiet Severus, secretly a heretic, killed a nearby Stormtrooper and used his blood to complete a Chaos ritual. A Warp portal appeared and a Chaos warhost materialized and began wrecking havoc aboard the Enduring Blade[1d]. As the Chaos Space Marines and Daemons of the warhost overran the battleship, Captain Ardias would declare that the Enduring Blade was lost and order its evacuation of all surviving Tau and Imperium forces[1e]. When the last of the escape pods launched from the doomed battleship, Captain Brunt of the Retribution Class Battleship the Purgatus (part of Battlefleet Ultima Primus) opened fire upon the Enduring Blade, destroying it and bringing an ignoble end to its illustrious career.[1f]
