The Emperor’s Angel of Death

Although the Ur-Lan Hudda's weapon design Sage boasted loudly about the Darkflame Cannon, it didn't receive much support. Zhao-Arcadia's reason for opposition was simple: the shortcomings of photon-piercing weapons were no secret within the Mechanicum. Despite nearly ten thousand years of development, this weapon remained immature. Its energy system was designed to be very unstable, and frequent use could lead to catastrophic accidents, causing the weapon's wielder to be consumed by rampant black flames.

Although generations of Sages had tried to improve this weapon, so far, there wasn't a single stable model in the publicly available templates.

For a vessel as important and expensive as the Abyss-class, using an unstable weapon was unacceptable to its primary builder, Zhao-Arcadia.

It was precisely because of this controversy that the Abyss-class's newly designed dorsal main cannon was still in a state of vacancy.

Besides this, a large number of medium-sized gun emplacements were designed on both sides of the hull, some of which had already been installed, gleaming in the harbor lights. On the protruding upper and lower layers of the two wings, laser cannons and plasma cannons were mounted on angular metal turrets. The hull's belly also had a large number of gun emplacements and laser arrays, as well as frighteningly dense missile launch bays.

From the bow to the rib-like belly of the hull, dozens of flight decks were densely arranged, capable of launching hundreds of fighters at once, though some were still under construction, with only simple closures at the entrances instead of airlocks.

"The Eleventh Legion has an Abyss-class..."

Kasati exclaimed in astonishment. The Night Lords around him turned to look at him, and Sablin took the lead in asking.

"Senior, what is this ship? It doesn't look human?"

Bakhram, standing to the side, also said softly:

"I heard that the Chapter has a top-secret project with Zhao-Arcadia. It is said that only the Fourth Company Captain and the Forge Master know about it, but there are rumors of a secret warship. Is this its true form, an Abyss-class?"

"Of course you wouldn't know, because only three of these warships were built, and they're in a top-secret state. They were secretly manufactured on Jupiter, and then transferred to Horus by a Forge General who had already turned traitor. Horus then transferred them to the Seventeenth Legion, to be used against the Thirteenth Legion."

Li Lin widened his eyes, seemingly wanting to see every inch of the distant warship in detail. After a while, he turned his head and asked:

"Senior, is it bigger than the Gloriana?"

"Hmm... as far as I know, the Abyss-class should have a larger tonnage."

"Hiss, then why isn't it famous at all? Logically speaking, shouldn't such a super-warship be renowned?"

Kasati's lips curled into a mocking smile.

"The sword is powerful, but unfortunately, it fell into the hands of a fool. No matter how powerful it is, it can only be an unnamed sword in the end. The Seventeenth Legion held three such super-giant ships, but the battles were still fought like a pile of crap. One of the Abyss-class ships sank inexplicably before even reaching the battlefield, and the other two attacked Ultramar, but soon one of them was sunk during the transfer. Now the Word Bearers still have one, but it hasn't done anything in ten thousand years."

"Tsk tsk tsk, what a waste. Hey, Senior, which do you think is more powerful, the Abyss-class or the Gloriana?"

Kasati pondered for a moment, then shook his head.

"I can't say for sure. There are significant differences between each Gloriana-class warship, making it difficult to generalize. Moreover, all data about the Abyss-class should have been destroyed from the moment it was built. I guess its details are unknown to outsiders except for some members of the Word Bearers. Your question is indeed unanswerable."

"Oh? If that's the case, then how did this one come about?"

Hearing Li Lin's question, Kasati smiled meaningfully, then teased:

"It can only be said that you don't understand Chapter Master Solzhenitsyn's abilities and capabilities enough. Did you see that crescent-shaped big thing?"

"Ah, I saw it. Isn't it an artificial moon of the Mechanicum?"

Li Lin's words made Sablin and Bakhram roll their eyes. Kasati reached out and knocked the other's head.

"I'll check your xeno-archeology knowledge in three days! If you fail, you'll be confined! Can't you even recognize the Necrons' stuff?"

"Ah, the Necrons' stuff, that thing..."

While speaking, Li Lin rubbed his forehead aggrievedly.

"Was that thing captured? It's so big..."

"That's why I said, you still underestimate that one. An Necron warship of this level, let alone capture, the Imperium may not have even seen it. The Chapter Master went out and brought it back intact, so the Abyss-class isn't anything very surprising."

Li Lin then turned his gaze to Bakhram.

"Hey, Bakhram, do you think the Chapter will allow us to go up and take a look?"

"Why not? But it looks like it hasn't been completed yet, so we'll probably have to wait for a while."

At this time, Alvarez, who was also observing the Abyss-class, was suddenly called over by a Tech-Priest with an auxiliary communication device. After stopping for more than ten seconds, he walked back and told everyone.

"The Chapter has just sent a message that Chapter Master Solzhenitsyn allows each company to organize visits to some areas of the Abyss-class on their own."

As soon as this was said, Li Lin's eyes lit up, and then he looked at Kasati. Before he could speak, Kasati smiled:

"Alright, I know, go to the flight deck to gather."

Li Lin raised his hand and cheered, then began to call out to the people in his company, while Kasati looked at Bakhram.

"Tenth Company Captain, are you going with us?"

Bakhram nodded.

"No problem, I'll summon my company now."

"Okay, then we'll meet at the flight deck."

While the various companies were gradually rushing to the newly arrived Abyss-class, Solzhenitsyn, accompanied by Talos and others, had already browsed the main structure of the warship.

It proved that, as long as some unnecessary restraints were lifted, the Tech-Priests and Sages of the Mechanicum were actually very creative.

For example, although the Abyss-class was very, very powerful, it was, after all, a warship designed ten thousand years ago by the Sages of the Mechanicum at that time. Although it was still very advanced in various main systems and hull designs, it was indeed outdated in some aspects, or rather, did not meet the warfare needs of this era. After all, not everything is better the older it is.

Like the Abyss-class's internal cabin design, although it looked like a battleship, it excessively emphasized the load capacity of personnel and the transportation capacity of weapons and equipment, belonging to a very typical "expeditionary warship" - this was an early design concept of the Imperium, that is, the priority of warship performance indicators was divided according to defense \u003e transportation \u003e firepower \u003e mobility. The most typical design was the Ironclad-class battleship. This type of warship reflected the early needs of the Imperium, being able to resist the enemy's fierce firepower and deploy a large number of deadly Space Marines to the enemy's worlds, so not only was the defense exaggerated, but the transportation capacity was also extremely outrageous, usually planned according to the number of more than 10,000 Space Marines, which can be understood as a super-large battle barge. Although this type of ship is still common in the Imperium, it is certainly not appropriate for the cost and man-hours of the Abyss-class to be used merely as an enlarged version of a battle barge. (As a project launched in a hurry, the original Abyss-class had many problems and was basically unusable without major modifications.)