60,738
edits
Changes
From Warhammer 40k - Lexicanum
m
no edit summary
Once assembled, the strike team recieved their instructions from Captain-General Valdor via hololithic projection to the ''Ultio'' that briefed them on their assassination mission on Dagonet.{{Fn|1e}} Before departing the Solar System, the Infocyte Tariel was provided with a cargo pod filled with weapons that was transported to the starship in order to equip the Execution Force for its mission. The ship later departed into the [[warp]] and exited the boundaries of the [[Segmentum Solar]] where the Navigator took the vessel down barely-charted passages in the Immaterium that was known only to the higher echelons of the Imperial government. These routes were too small for larger vessels to travel through as their larger crews tended to attract the attention of [[Daemon|entities]] within the warp. However, the ''Ultio''s much smaller size along with crew allowed it to be a phantom-ship with its Geller-field protecting it from the predatory intelligences of the Immaterium.{{Fn|1f}} After passing into the Taebian Sector and entering the Dagonet system, the vessel went into an the hulk of an abandoned space station where the drive section was detached with the Astropath along with the Navigator remaining behind whilst the pilot-cyborg took the crew section towards the target world.{{Fn|1f}} Among the components in the cargo pod in the crew section included the Lance which was to be used by the Vindicare Kell in eliminating Horus.{{Fn|1g}} Following the failure in the mission, Tariel returned to the ''Ultio'' in order to rearm with weapons to better combat the seemingly supernatural assassin known as [[Spear]].{{Fn|1i}} Being the only survivor of the team, Kell later transmitted all the contents of the mission to the crew on the drive section and gave the a ''Protocol Perditus'' priority command that was to be released only under Omnis Octal authority.{{Fn|1j}}
After recieving receiving this command, the Astropath and Navigator departed the Dagonet system whereupon they took the drive section on a direct route to Sol to report the failure on the mission. The drive section managed to avoid weaponfire weaponsfire from the traitor fleet of the [[Sons of Horus]] as it entered into a warp gate.{{Fn|1j}} In the mean time, the main body of the ''Ultio'' engaged in a suicidal attack against the ''[[Vengeful Spirit]]'' which served as the command ship of Horus.{{Fn|1j}} The [[Imperial Fists]] later discovered the drive section of the ''Ultio'' under the name of the common freighter ''Hallis Faye'' which was found on the edge of the [[Oort Cloud ]] on a course for Sol. The Primarch [[Rogal Dorn]] had the datum capsule salvaged from the mnemonic core and used the evidence in order to challenge the secret heads of the Officio Assassinorum at the [[Shrouds]] over their covert activities. This saw [[Malcador (Character)|Malcadorthe Sigilite]] the Sigilite being unveiled as the Master of Assassins alongside the heads of the unmasked heads of the various assassin Clades who listened to the reports of the dead Execution Force.{{Fn|1k}}
==Overview==
In design, the ship resembled a light bulk transport ship similar to the thousand of different sub-light intrasystem space lanes of the Imperium. As the design is commonplace, it meant that the ''Ultio'' became almost invisible due to the commonly seen design mking making it perfect for the purposes of the Officio Assassinorum. Whilst small in comparison to the mammoth starcruisers of the [[Imperial Navy]] or even [[Rogue Trader]] baronages, the stubby trident was much more stealthier. The design featured a stubby trident with the shaft of the main hull present which appeared to be space for cargo but was in fact filled with mechanisms as well as a power train for an advanced interstellar warp motor. This vessel had been built around the old engine and its origins were lost to time whilst the arrowhead forward section being the actual place for the cabins along with compartments. The forward module that was swept back and curved as an aerodyne is capable od detaching itself from the massive drives in order to make planetfall with similar characteristics of a guncutter.{{Fn|1a}} Among its primary and most impressive features included an advanced stealth system designed to shield it from the eyes of its enemies.{{Fn|1f}} This system was known as an aura cloak and it was possible to increase power to this system to better its capabilities though such an act diminished the vessels void shielding.{{Fn|1j}} The aura cloak itself was in fact generations ahead of common Imperial Navy technology.{{Fn|1j}}
The crew sections were cramped and narrow with the sleeping quarters being no larger than prison cells. Hexagonal corridors and a flight deck were all configured with advanced gravity simulators to allow every centimetre of the surface area to be used.{{Fn|1a}} A number of small crawlspaces were spread across the ship and it included a medicae compartment with a therapy pod to help injured individuals recover.{{Fn|1e}} For the crew, a number of rations were stationed onboard the vessel to help with nutritional requirements.{{Fn|1h}} One portion of the ship, known as the ''"staging area"'', was in fact a converted storage bay which highlighted the strange characteristics of the vessel as it had been assembled from rare technologies along with secrets that had been stitched into a single body.{{Fn|1e}} Part of the crew included an [[Astropath]] and a [[Navigator]] both of whom are able to remain at the rear drive section as well as place themselves in sense-deep slumber in order to avoid contact with [[Pariah]] assassins of Culexus.{{Fn|1a}} The drive section is able to operate independently from the crew section and is capable of using its thrusters as well as warp engine to depart a system.{{Fn|1j}} The ''Ultio''s crew section also possessed last-chance protocols that allowed the crew to enter into saviour pods located beneath the cockpit in case the ship faced destruction.{{Fn|1j}}
Of the three crew, the last member was a pilot-cyborg who was the least [[human]] of the ships complement as this individual had no actual body. Instead, their form was similar to the venerable [[Dreadnought]]'s of the [[Adeptus Astartes]] in the sense that the organic pilot had been interned within a body of iron and steel. Within this block of computational hardware that filled the rear part of the crew deck sat parts of the brain along with preserved skeins of nerve ganglia that served as all that remained of the human. This bonding merged the pilot with the ship in the sense that they were both the ''Ultio'' with the pilot-cyborg being the fusion core of its bearing heart.{{Fn|1a}} It consisted of clever subordinate machine-brains that linked with any electronic items and uploaded their contents together for a data-transmission burst to the drive section where it would be recieved received by the Astropath who in turn would transmit it further.{{Fn|1j}} The pilot-cyborg responded under the name of ''Ultio'' and communicated through a synthetic vocoder that is capable of being broadcasted from a speaker grille. Such was the pilots control that it could manage the gravitational plates of certain sections and increase the gravity thus pinning individuals under their own mass.{{Fn|1a}} The pilots cybernetic nature meant it was capable of feats far beyond an organic human pilot and had the capacity to reconfigure the gravity field for any surviving crew to withstand the g-forces without them dying in the process.{{Fn|1j}} The pilot helmsmen also provided advisory data on threats and possible results of certain actions.{{Fn|1j}}
A short circuit surge from weapon fire is capable of boiling away the higher brain functions of the cybernetic pilot. However, so long as the core brain remained intact, it was capable of still following its commands.{{Fn|1j}}
==Sources==
*{{Endn|1}}: [[Nemesis (Novel)]] by [[James Swallow]]:
**{{Endn|1a}}: {{Cite This}}, pgs. 78-79
**{{Endn|1b}}: {{Cite This}}, pg. 83
