Vengeful Spirit

The Vengeful Spirit was an Adeptus Astartes Battle Barge that served as the flagship of the Warmaster Horus and his Luna Wolves (later called the Sons of Horus) Legion during the Great Crusade and the Horus Heresy. From the Battle Barge's strategium, and later the Lupercal's Court, a throne room centered upon the starship's massive command deck, Horus would coordinate the military and diplomatic efforts of the 63rd Expeditionary Fleet of the Great Crusade, and countless thousands of Imperial personnel from a multitude of Imperial organizations lived and worked on board. Additionally, because the vessel was so old, one of the first Battle Barges built for the Imperium by the Mechanicum of Mars following the alliance between the newborn Imperium of Man and the Mechanicum, the core of the ship was a rotting, empty labyrinth of filth and vermin. This is significant because it was in the bowels of the Vengeful Spirit that the Chaos-tainted Word Bearers First Chaplain Erebus schemed to corrupt Horus to Chaos on the command of his new masters within the Immaterium. Erebus hid the Kinebrach Anathame Chaos-tainted sword that would be used to mortally wound Horus within this area of the battle barge after he stole the weapon from the Hall of Devices museum on the Interex world of Xenobia. The core of the Vengeful Spirit is also where Erebus would eventually hold the ritualistic ceremonies of dark worship and human sacrifices that were required for Horus to communicate with the Ruinous Powers of the Warp he later called allies. Over time, the Venegeful Spirit became less of a warship and more of a temple to the Dark Gods of Chaos whom Horus came to revere in his quest for domination over the Imperium of Man.

The final battle between Horus and the Emperor of Mankind during the Battle of Terra took place on the Chaos-twisted bridge of this starship where Humanity's once-bright future was shattered beyond repair. Following the Horus Heresy, Abaddon the Despoiler, Horus's former First Captain and the new Warmaster of Chaos and commander of the renamed Black Legion, claimed the Vengeful Spirit as his own flagship and it still forms the heart of the Black Legion's fleet to this day.