Ships of the Imperial Navy
From Death unto Darkness
The vast cathedral-like edifices of Imperial Navy ships mare machines dedicated to two overriding tasks of awesome difficulty: to bring the Imperium’s terrible firepower to bear against the Enemies of Humanity, and to keep the thousands of human souls within safe from the hostile Void and the even deadlier depredations of the Warp. Most Imperial Ships are hundreds or thousands of years old, born in the shipyards of distant Sectors or even the Rings of Iron around Holy Mars itself. Designated HIMVS (His Imperial Majesty’s Voidship), they often bear grandiose, pious or boastful names commemorating Imperial saints, famous victories or phrases from Ecclesiarchy scripture.
The ships of the Navy fall into three broad categories:
- Battleships and their smaller cousins Battlecruisers and Grand Cruisers, usually between 6 and 8 kilometres in length, with crews usually over 100,000 souls. These ships are usually escorted by a mass of escort and tender vessels; while they are astonishingly powerful fire platforms, or carrier bases for vast fleets of attack craft, they rarely travel anywhere alone – with rare exceptions such as the Exorcist class Grand Cruiser, optimised for deep-void solo missions.
- Cruisers, usually 5-6 kilometres long, optimised for firepower and durability, with a usual complement of 50-100,000 souls. A Cruiser Group is a deadly void force in its own right, often enough to quell most pirate incursions or enemy raids.
- Escorts, usually 3 kilometres long or smaller, are rapid and aggressive vessels which protect and screen the slower Capital Ships to allow the larger vessels to get into position and use their devastating heavy weapons. Escorts almost always operate in squadrons, sometimes called “Wolf Packs”, and are vulnerable alone. Frigates and Destroyers are the most common, but this category also includes Scout Sloops, Corvettes and other specialist vessels.
Divided between the atmospheric craft of the Aeronautica Imperialis and the large void-based attack craft of the Cosmonautica Imperialis, Attack Craft is a catch all term for all vessels too small to be considered by the Navy to be worthy of the status of being considered a class of Void Ship and thusly awarded a prefix in Naval registries. These small craft are not capable of warp travel and operate from the hangars of larger Naval vessels providing void superiority in space as well as taking to the atmosphere of various worlds to secure air cover for the Imperial Guard.
The aircraft of the Aeronautica Prosperitas
The Prosperitas Crusade makes do with a combination of the famous aircraft found across the Imperium and a number of locally-made models of aircraft supplied by various forges and manufactorums across the Prosperitas Sector.
- Lightning Interceptors are common across the Imperium. These nimble one-pilot crafts are the dogfighters of the Imperium favoured by fighter aces with something to prove as their lightly armoured airframes are vulnerable and require intense skill to survive in for long.
- Gadaiche Ground Attack Craft are locally produced in the Prosperitas Sector, their name drawn from the Gair word for 'bandit'. These heavy aircraft, produced on Ferraeus and manufactorums licenced by the Forge to do so are designed to circle above battlefields like carrion, raining fire upon the enemy from numerous ground facing weapons platforms and wing-mounted missile pods.
- Lugvervoer Autogiro Transports are a relatively primitive form aircraft known as the gyrocraft that uses rotary blades to achieve lift. Locally developed on Korimesta, the Lugvervoer is far less adapted to the battlefield then the Valkyrie, Lugvervoer's are loathed by the Guard forced to rely on them and the Naval pilots forced to fly them. These cramped craft are famously said to only fly 'because they are so ugly the ground repels them.
- Valkyrie Assault Carriers are VTOL (Vertical Takeoff and Landing) aircraft used to transport Imperial Guard units into the thick of battle, mounting heavy armament and armour the Valkyrie is a craft of which many patterns are produced across the Imperium, the Ferraeus-pattern Valkyrie for example has a bubble-shaped canopy.
- Vulture Gunships are a close relative to the Valkyrie in terms of design aspects and the two complement each other, a VTOL class like its sister-transport the Vulture is a dedicated weapons platform crewed by a team of two it has adaptable payloads for numerous weapons.
- Qarsan Bombers fulfil a role where the Marauder aircraft fits in the wider Imperium, though Battlefleet Prosperitas possesses marauders it has far greater numbers of the smaller locally produced Qarsan which originates from the forgeworld Naximus Prime. Qarsan bombers are swept wing craft designed to carry conventional and atomic armaments lacking the defences of the flying fortress that is the Marauder it makes up for this with speed but requires extensive escort.
The voidcraft of the Cosmonautica Prosperitas
- Fury Interceptors are the workhorse of the Cosmonautica an attack craft with anti-ship capabilities against lighter capital craft as well as interception duties against other attack craft the Fury comes in many patterns. The patterns found in the Battlefleet Prosperitas are forty meter long voidcrafts crewed by a crew of four or two in a Servitor assisted craft. Armed with a compliment of lascannons and anti-ship missiles an individual Fury packs an incredible punch and deployed in a squadron of three to six such craft can pose a significant threat to other attack craft and light vessels.
- Starhawk Bombers are the primary anti-ship attack craft of the Cosmonautica at nearly sixty meters these massive lumbering craft are vulnerable to enemy voidfighters and despite fortress-like armaments require Fury escorts to make it safely to their destination where they can unleash immense payloads of anti-ship missiles and plasma bombs against their targets from within their shield envelopes enabling them to deal crippling strikes. Crewed by a crew of ten to fifteen Cosmonautica, each Starhawk is its own small community who treat their immense bomber like a home.
- Shark Assault Boats are the primary boarding craft of the Cosmonautica, each one a powerful engine behind a massive armoured troop section that carries fifty troops be they Naval Armsfolk or Imperial Guard the Navy have deigned to allow to assist them in boarding operations. Effectively a giant ram the front end of the Shark is loaded with melta charges and cutting beams that chew through armoured hulls to deploy their compliment into the heart of an enemy vessel. Return journeys are rare for such vessels which often need to be dug out of the hulls of captured ships like particularly persistent parasites.
- Carnivore Drop Ships are the mass transporters used by the Cosmonautica to transport ground forces to the surface of worlds, though Valkyries are void-capable, these massive craft are capable of carrying entire companies of troops and supporting vehicles to a planet descending from the sky with powerful retrojets firing before they slam to the ground and disgorge their complements they require assistance to return to the void. The perceived divorce from the void that is the Cosmonautica's home make these vessels unpopular postings reserved for rookies who don't know better and those out of favour with Command.
- Alkesh Gun-Cutters are a class of vessel that hybridises attack craft, planetary lander and shuttle, well armed and capable of limited dogfighting these are one of the few craft commanded by the Cosmonautica Prosperitas that are capable of true atmospheric flight. Responsible for transporting Naval personnel into combat zones and providing security in the processed they are favoured as the 'Captains shuttle' on most ships and often are used on the Prosperitas frontier to make exploratory landings. The Alkesh is a locally produced variant utilised extensively by the Battlefleet Prosperitas, produced on Amenophis IV these guncutters combine traditional combat designs with the ostentatious aesthetics of that world.