The Emperor’s Angel of Death

Within the colossal, ring-shaped orbital structure of Nateson IV, a structure far surpassing those of typical worlds, stood a massive space station second only to the planet's primary shipyard. This station, however, was not open to the public. Its semi-circular main building bore a prominent, scorched symbol: a crossed pair of swords, signifying its role as the military port of the Star Phantoms Chapter and a strictly off-limits military zone.

Under normal circumstances, the station housed warships, transport vessels, and other spacecraft belonging to the Chapter. But today, it was unusually bustling.

Warships of various designs, all painted red, crowded the port area. Each bore different markings, indicating their origin worlds: Mars, Ryza, Yellow Springs VIII, Steel Ball, Grea, Phaeton, Griffin IV, Urdrek, Atta Central, Mac'Khand II, Angstrom, and more. Over twenty-five Forge Worlds, large and small, had dispatched their most skilled Mechanicus Magi, masters of analysis and logic.

They were here for what the Adeptus Mechanicus held most dear: Standard Template Constructs, or STCs.

This might seem strange. How could a Space Marine Chapter possess so many STCs? The Star Phantoms were an exception, for their Chapter Master was legendary—so much so that doubt was hard to come by. The sprawling Great Maelstrom Crusade alone could have yielded a rich bounty. Many Forge Worlds had participated in the Crusade, and their exploration fleets were still active in the Maelstrom, an area proven to contain numerous ancient relics worth excavating.

Whether the STCs up for auction were spoils from the Maelstrom, no one would investigate too closely. After all, within the Imperium, if you sought a group least concerned with 'procedural correctness,' the Tech-Priests would be first in line. In their eyes, the end justified the means, and the process was irrelevant.

It wasn't uncommon for the Mechanicus to acquire technological artifacts of dubious origin from certain eccentric Chapters or Space Marines.

For this auction, Sorshyan had brought out nearly half of the STCs he had acquired from Ullanor. Had he not feared 'devaluation' and unwanted attention, he would have emptied his vaults entirely, save for the biological and medical technologies reserved for the Legion. Even so, the auction featured a staggering 52 STCs, compared to the mere 11 offered at the first auction.

Sorshyan felt a growing sense of urgency. Better to spend his wealth than hoard it.

His generosity certainly surprised the Magi, who had not anticipated so much on offer.

But the Adeptus Mechanicus could never have too much, and STCs were the ultimate prize, representing a Forge World's future potential and power. No amount of resources was too great to secure them.

During the 23-hour auction, the Magi displayed unmatched zeal and capability, revealing the true strength of the Mechanicus: not a lack of production capacity, but a lack of 'devotion.' They would only part with resources outside their direct responsibility as a last resort.

This auction, like the previous one, used the 'benchmark item' system, but the exchange items had changed. Basic weapons and equipment were no longer options; only 'large items' would do—Terminators, super-heavy tanks, or warships.

Especially for the valuable electronics STCs, Sorshyan stipulated that only warships would be accepted in trade.

No one questioned why a Chapter needed so many warships; thus, no answer was needed. The Mechanicus wasn't particularly concerned with 'Imperial order.'

The final result pleased Sorshyan. The powerful Mars secured the majority of the STCs, a total of 20. The Martian Magi, however, possessed a keener 'political sense' than those of other Forge Worlds. Having previously traded warships for STCs with Mars, Sorshyan was asked about the origin of his STCs. He bluntly replied that he'd recovered them from the Red Corsairs' vaults.

That was all that needed to be said. Mars paid handsomely for the STCs: five Cardinal-class heavy cruisers, three Tyrant-class heavy cruisers, and one Mars-class battlecruiser would be awakened from the ship graveyards of Saturn. Under the guise of reassignment, modified Navy designation codes would be used to surreptitiously transfer them to the Star Phantoms fleet as part of a 'destroyed' fleet.

Whether this constituted theft of Imperial property was Mars's concern; Sorshyan couldn't interfere.

After all, most Imperial matters ultimately dissolved into a murky mess. Certainly, Mars had done this before. How many ships had 'quietly' disappeared from the emergency reserves in various ship graveyards over the millennia was anyone's guess.

Notably, Sorshyan had not expected to pull Cardinal-class ships from Mars's ship graveyards. This class dated back to the mid-Great Crusade era. A lance-armed ship, slightly larger than the Lunar-class, it lacked the Lunar's broadside firepower but possessed two large lance turrets on its dorsal spine, which suited Sorshyan's aesthetic preferences.

Others might have considered Mars to be fobbing him off with obsolete ships, but Sorshyan's years of studying Imperial warships had made him something of a naval expert. He was reasonably satisfied with the Cardinal-class, as its obsolescence was not solely due to its age, but also to its successor, the Styx-class (also translated as Underworld-class) heavy cruiser.

Before the Gothic War, the Cardinal-class had been gradually retiring from the Imperial Navy. A Magos from a certain Forge World noticed some shortcomings in the Cardinal-class, mainly the limitations of its power supply, which prevented sustained lance fire. In the spirit of making good use of waste, they began developing a successor to the Cardinal-class. It was said that the Magos who designed the Styx-class had found an alien ship and used its technology to improve the Cardinal's lances, modifying a Cardinal-class ship as a testbed. This ship was designated as a separate class: the Styx-class.

The Styx-class design was successful. Without major alterations, it fixed the Cardinal-class's lance flaws, which could have revitalized all the retiring ships. But, as usual, things in the Imperium took a turn for the worse. The test ship rebelled during the Gothic War!

This was disastrous. In the Imperium's atmosphere, a single stain could condemn an entire project. Combined with the rumors of alien technology, the Styx-class was sentenced to death, and the Cardinal-class was relegated to the ship graveyards, never to be seen again. Now, it could only be found in a few fringe fleets, such as the Bacchus Fleet in the Tempest Sector, which still had one Cardinal-class ship.