The Emperor’s Angel of Death

Although the Abyss-class was designed towards the end of the Great Crusade, it inevitably carried the characteristics of an "expeditionary warship," whether due to certain influences, the requirements of the заказчик, or simply its nature. Its interior had a significant amount of space designed to accommodate tens of thousands of Space Marines and their various light and heavy equipment, even Titans. According to the original design data provided by Zhao-Akada, the Abyss-class could, in extreme conditions, carry at least nearly fifty thousand Space Marines and their basic equipment and weaponry. This sounds impressive, but upon closer inspection, it feels a bit... nonsensical.

Because who in their right mind would stuff tens of thousands of Astartes into a warship?

However, the problems brought about by this design are very real. In the three Abyss-class ships that had already been built, the spaces designed to accommodate personnel were, for the most part, presumably empty. Yet, they couldn't be used for anything else, and these empty areas easily became vulnerable points for enemy boarding actions. To make matters worse, the Abyss-class didn't simplify where it should have, and it was stingy where it shouldn't have been. Despite such a vast internal space, it lacked a well-designed and effective anti-boarding system. Most Imperial capital ships now come equipped with an anti-boarding system, including numerous miniature pipe monitors, hidden automated turrets, retractable barricades and traps, reinforced blast doors for key passages, and compartmentalized destruction capabilities. Perhaps the designers were overconfident, believing that no ship could get close to the Abyss-class, so they omitted these basics. The main internal passages of the Abyss-class are practically "empty fort" strategies, and if anyone gets in, the personnel inside have to catch the rats themselves.

And this is just one part of the Abyss-class's design flaws. In fact, as a warship that consumes the most resources but yields almost no results in naval warfare, the Abyss-class's problems are not just because they are used by the Word Bearers. Many of their systems have been proven to be almost entirely useless or have minimal effect in naval combat. Zhao-Akada and the sages of Ulan-Huda are not just building a ship based on blueprints; they are essentially independently designing an improved version of the Abyss-class.

"...We have redesigned the internal compartment distribution and passageway routes of the ship. We have constructed five of these rapid maglev passages as the main arteries of the ship. One extends from the bow weapons control room to the stern main energy dispatch center, one from the top deck to the bottom G3 deck, one from the right wing to the central transfer bay, one from the left wing to the central transfer bay, and one from the ship's spine main gun deck to the central transfer bay."

Standing inside the spacious semi-circular carriage, Soros scanned the rapidly passing scenery outside the window. This was a two-way passage over a hundred meters wide, directly penetrating the entire middle of the hull, and there were many stations in between.

Around him were Talos, Lossa, Kayan, and several sages from Zhao-Akada and Ulan-Huda.

"...In addition, there are 21 branch lines and 172 sub-lines. Our design standard is that, starting from any position, it must be possible to reach any location on the ship within 15 minutes."

Soros nodded and turned to praise:

"The efficient operation of a warship comes not only from the efficiency of the machinery but also from the efficiency of the people, especially on such a super-large warship. The internal traffic efficiency has a significant impact on personnel flow and damage control. If I remember the war history correctly, an Abyss-class once sank due to extremely poor damage control efficiency, leading to penetration and destruction by a very small number of loyalist warriors. Although this is an example from the enemy, it is still a lesson."

Soon, the hovercraft began to decelerate and stopped after a dozen seconds.

The door opened, and the group stepped out of the carriage, passed through a hundred-meter-long silver passage, and entered a magnificent ship bay.

This bay was a hundred meters high and divided into three levels. The group was on the middle level, with a passage over five hundred meters long running through the bay. On both sides of the passage were huge elevators that could go to the upper or lower levels, and secondary passages extended from the main road to individual, huge, circular rooms, half-buried in the bulkheads, with massive cables coiling around them like pythons.

This used to be the area in the original design of the Abyss-class for accommodating personnel, but the mechanical sages realized that in this era of warbands, there was no real need for so much space to accommodate people. However, they had different opinions on what to convert it into, and in the end, Soros made the decision ten years ago—to transform it into a huge teleportation zone.

That's right, those circular rooms large enough to accommodate thirty Astartes or twenty Terminators are teleportation chambers.

Ordinary warships do not design very large or too many teleportation chambers, because teleportation itself is an unstable means of transfer, and the probability of using it in combat is not very high.

But Soros had a reason to specifically create a huge teleportation zone.

The instability of teleportation mainly lies in the beacon, but there is a type of teleportation that is quite stable, which is point-to-point teleportation between teleportation chambers. More importantly, the teleportation devices in these teleportation chambers have not been completely completed. Although human teleportation technology has some flaws and instability, Soros has more than one choice.

For example, the short-range teleportation device is very stable and has a very long range, although it is a bit expensive, it is worth it for a ship like the Abyss-class.

And the reason he is investing so much is to change a tactical tradition.

In the past, in order to protect ships or launch boarding actions, Astartes often had to station companies on large warships. However, there were too many uncertain factors in naval warfare. It was very likely that the enemy would not board but would directly attack from a long distance, or the ships launching the boarding action would not be able to persist to the corresponding distance. In this case, it was easy to produce unnecessary casualties. In the Maelstrom Expedition, nearly one-third of the Astartes casualties came from this, their martial arts and skills did not play any role, and they fell like worthless slaves on the lower decks.

Although I don't want to say it, Soros must admit that the value of an Astartes is too expensive. Before his bolter kills an enemy of equal value, any sacrifice is a huge waste.

Therefore, in future large-scale naval battles, the Abyss-class will become a "personnel distribution center." At the start of the battle, most of the Astartes will gather on this ship. Except for special ships, large warships will no longer permanently station companies or squads. When large warships encounter boarding actions, or when boarding missions are to be carried out, companies will depart from here and quickly arrive at the ships that need support through point-to-point teleportation from the teleportation chambers. This will minimize unnecessary personnel losses in naval battles.

Similarly, the gathering of a large number of Astartes on this ship can also minimize the risk of boarding invasions brought about by the Abyss-class's large hull.