Pride of the Emperor

The Pride of the Emperor was a Space Marine Battle-Barge that served as the flagship of Fulgrim, the Primarch of the Emperor's Children Legion during at least part of the Great Crusade in the late 30th and early 31st Millennia. This flagship led the flotilla of the Emperor's Children warships which comprised the III Legion's 28th Expeditionary Fleet. The Pride of the Emperor was the most magnificent, its armoured length inlaid with gold and armoured plates the colour of rich wine. It would orbit newly discovered worlds like a regal flagship of some ancient king, surrounded by an entourage of escorts, battleships, transports, supply vessels and army mass conveyers. The shipwrights of Jupiter had laid its keel a hundred and sixty years earlier, shortly after the beginning of the Great Crusade, the design and creation overseen by the Fabricator General of Mars himself, and its every component crafted by hand to unimaginably exacting specifications. The construction process had taken twice as long as any other vessel of comparable displacement, but such was only to be expected for the flagship of the Primarch of the III Legion.

A notable feature within the Pride of the Emperor was the Triumphal Way, a wide processionial way forged of pale walls of cool marble and towering onyx columns, their surfaces inlaid with gold lettering that spoke of battles won and glories gained during the Great Crusade. The Pride of the Emperor was to be Fulgrim’s legacy to the future, and its walls bore the history of the Imperium carved into its very bones. Statues of the Legion’s heroes lined the processional way and gilt framed artworks commissioned from the expedition’s Remembrancers brought some much needed colour to the cold space. As an individual made his way down the long corridor they would pass Emperor’s Children armed with golden pilum spears at regular intervals along the triumphal way. Though they stood as immobile as the statues, the fierce potential for violence that beat within the breast of every Astartes warrior was evident in each of them.

The Triumphal Way ended at the great Phoenix Gate, a towering bronze portal that depicted the Emperor symbolically presenting Fulgrim with the Imperial eagle. The eagle was the Emperor’s own symbol, and he had commanded that Fulgrim’s Legion alone bear it upon their armour, as a mark of the regard in which they were held. The honour done to the Emperor’s Children was immeasurable. As Emperor's Children warriors looked upon the gate, they would feel fierce pride swell within their breasts. More guards stood before the Phoenix Gate, armed with long spears. As the warriors passed through the gate they would then enter into the Heliopolis. The Heliopolis was personal council chamber of Fulgrim. The beauty and majest of it had the power to render those who laid eyes upon it speechless with its towering walls of pale stone and rank upon rank of marble statues on golden plinths that supported the vast domed room. Intricate mosaics, too high to make out the details, filled the coffers of the dome and long, silk banners of purple and gold hung between fluted pilasters of green marble.

Lustrous beams of starlight shone down from the centre of the dome, reflecting dazzlingly from the black terrazzo floor of the Heliopolis. Marble and quartz chips laid into the mortar and ground to a polished sheen turned the floor into a glittering, dark mirror that shone like the heavens beyond. Dust motes danced in the brightness, and the smoky aroma of scented oils filled the air. Rows of marble benches ran around the circumference of Fulgrim’s council chamber, rising in stepped tiers towards the walls in serried ranks, enough to seat 2,000 men, though barely a quarter of that number were present for this council of war. A chair of polished black marble sat in the centre of the pillar of starlight and it was from here that Lord Fulgrim heard the petitions of his warriors and granted audiences. If the Primarch had not yet graced an assemblage with his arrival, the empty chair was a potent presence in the chamber. Officers drawn from all the military arms of the 28th Expedition would be seated in the marble benches. Senior officers would take their place on the bench nearest the floor. Casting one's eyes around the chamber, an individual would see silver and scarlet officers of the Imperial Army filling the lower tiers of the Heliopolis, their closeness to the floor indicative of their higher ranks.

The Heliopolis was also used as a gathering place for the Brotherhood of the Phoenix a clandestine warrior lodge that existed within the Emperor's Children that consisted of various members of the III Legion that was conducted under the guidance of their Primarch Fulgrim. The Brotherhood of the Phoenix met by firelight in the Heliopolis, taking their seats around a wide, circular table placed at the centre of the dark floor. Reflected light from the ceiling would bathe the table in light and crackling orange flames burned in a brazier set into the surface of the table’s centre. The high-backed chairs of black wood were equally spaced around the table, half of them occupied by cloaked warriors of the Emperor’s Children. Though the circular table was, in theory, supposed to do away with rank and position, there was no doubting who the master of one the Brotherhood's gathering was. Other Legions might have a more informal setting for their warrior lodges, but the Emperor’s Children thrived on tradition and ritual, for in repetition came perfection. The assembled warriors would stand and bow their heads as the Primarch of the Emperor’s Children took his place at the table. As always, Lord Commanders Eidolon and Vespasian flanked the Primarch, their armour similarly wreathed in cloaks of feathers. Each carried a staff topped with a small brazier of black iron that burned with a red flame.

Another notable feature of the Pride of the Emperor was the lord of the Emperor’s Children’s private staterooms. Fulgrim’s chambers were the envy of Terra’s master of antiquities; every wall hung with elegantly framed pictures of vibrant alien landscapes or extraordinary picts of the Astartes and mortals of the Crusade. Antechambers filled with marble busts and the spoils of war radiated from the central stateroom, and everywhere the eye fell, it alighted on a work of unimaginable artistic beauty. Only the far end of the room was bare of ornamentation, the space filled with part carved blocks of marble, and easels of unfinished artwork.

The Archive Chambers of the Pride of the Emperor were spread over three long decks, the gilded shelves stacked high with texts from Old Earth. The manuscripts of this magnificent collection had been painstakingly collated by the 28th Expedition’s archivist, a meticulous man by the name of Evander Tobias, whose sanctum was located in the vaulted nave of the upper archive decks. The marble columned stacks stretched out as far as the eye could see. A reverential hush filled the wide aisles with a solemnity befitting such a vast repository of knowledge. Tall pillars of green marble marched into the distance, and the shelves of dark wood bowed under the weight of scrolls, books and data crystals that filled the spaces between them.

Fulgrim would often launch from the decks of the Pride of the Emperor aboard the Firebird, a a gunship he had personally designed and constructed in the armorium decks of his flagship. Its wings had a greater span than a Stormbird, curved in a graceful backward sweep, and its hooked prow gave it a fearsome war visage that struck terror into the hearts of the Primarch’s foes. In battle, the Firebird would soar like the most graceful of birds, its fiery wings leaving vortices of flaring gasses in its wake. Like a twisting comet trailing streamers of flame behind it, the assault craft seemed to glide easily through explosions and streaking lines of deadly gunfire.