Contemptor Pattern Dreadnought

The Contemptor Pattern Dreadnought is a true relic of the pinnacles of power the fledgling Imperium of Man had reached during the Great Crusade before the foul betrayal of the Emperor's most favoured son Warmaster Horus plunged the galaxy into a new age of darkness.

History
The Contemptor was once a staple of the armoured might of the Legion Astartes Legions of old. Evidence of their ancient origins exist in the forms of sacred Chapter memento mori and ancient monuments raised on worlds such as Necromunda and Lorin Alpha. This suggests that the Contemptor Pattern Dreadnought was played an integral part of the earliest forces raised on Terra for the Great Crusade.

During the height of the Great Crusade era the Contemptor served alongside other Dreadnought patterns (such as the Mars pattern MkIV and MkV) as a spearhead unit, serving at the brunt of fighting in almost every theatre during the wars of the Horus Heresy and its aftermath during the Great Scouring. The losses of these laudable war machines was, most regrettably, incredibly high. The ability to reproduce or maintain this ancient pattern was all but lost in the aftermath of the Heresy, as with many of the most sophisticated and arcane examples of the Imperium's panoply of war. Such venerable war-relics that still remain in service in M41 are incredibly rare compared to even to other brother Dreadnoughts such as the Venerable Mk IV pattern. For when such an esteemed and venerated engine of destruction as a Contemptor takes to the field of battle, the foes of Mankind tremble at the incarnation of ancient days come again.

Weapons and Technology
The Contemptor Pattern Dreadnought is larger and more powerful than its contemporaries the preceded it, for the it features many systems in common with the dreaded Imperial Robots of the fabled Legio Cybernetica, including archaic technology such as field generator technology that was later refined and incorporated into the Storm Shields wielded by Adeptus Astartes Terminators, as well as other secrets of the Dark Age of Technology concealed within its very chassis.

Some rare examples of Contemptor Dreadnoughts have been known to carry strange and singular weapons from the Imperium's dawning might such as the Kheres Pattern Assault Cannon considered by some scholars of the techno-arcane to be the forerunner of the Terminator Assault Cannon, compact plasma-blasters and gravity flux weapnos whose secrets were ultimately lost during the Schism of Mars at the outset of the Horus Heresy.

Contemptor-Mortis Pattern
The Contemptor-Mortis sub-pattern utilised the advanced Contemptor fram as a powerful heavy weapons carrier, able to target and destroy the enemy at close range, and was also fitted with advanced targeting auguries and tracking systems allowing it to provide an Astartes Spearhead force with close air defence where needed. One of the Contemptor-Mortis Pattern Dreadnought's most distinctive features were the defense field generators mounted in its armoured carapace and powered by the potent Atomantic power reactor core housed within. During the latter years of the Great Crusade, the Contemptor-Mortis was widely used by both the Dark Angels and Iron Warriors Legions, although its saw service to some extent with all of the Crusade forces. In the 41st millennium, there remains a number of Contemptor-Mortis pattern Dreadnoughts still found in operational condition and they are revered both as potent weapons and sacred relics to those Space Marine Chapters fortunate enough to posses them.

Chaos Contemptor Dreadnought
In the aftermath of the galaxy-wide conflict known as the Horus Heresy and the subsequent Great Scouring, the Traitor Legions were pursued by the vengeful Imperium and cast into disorder and retreat. They were eventually driven back into the shadow of the greatest warp storm known as the Eye of Terror. During their flight from their persecutors the Traitors lost much of their cherished and sacred wargear or it became corrupted and scavenged. Many of the more advanced techno-arcana designs were cast aside in favour of arms more readily manufactured and maintained by the hell-spat forges of the Dark Mechanicus. But even during these dark times, the rare few Contemptor Pattern Dreadnoughts held by those fortunate to possess them were always held as a most precious resource. Their consummate military value far outweighed any other concerns for the Chaos Legions warsmiths' nightmarish intellects devised hellish replacements for those arcane systems they could not so easily duplicate in their forges.

Unable to maintain the Contemptor's original arcane armaments in exile, the Dark Magos have replaced them with occult weapons of diabolical design, forged in blood and suffused by daemonic force, such as the Soul Burner which unleashes explosive blasts of daemonic force which devours the souls of its victims to the so-called Butcher Cannon - a heavy calibre rotary gun whose shells are bound with runes of anathema and bloodletting. Another notable piece of forbidden technology incorporated by Chaos Contemptors is their suffusion of power from their Warp-infused Hellfire Reactor which charges its armoured carapace to a preternatural resilience and also serves as a hungry vortex for the soul-stuff of those it has killed, with enemy psykers particularly vulnerable to its relentless hunger.

Though few in number, these few ancient relics have changed hands over the millennia many times and forged countless dark deeds in their wake. These Chaos Contemptors have always been preserved for the occupancy of powerful Chaos Lords and oft-times a Dark Magos Heretek and worse. As a result of their advanced technology and nature these Chaos Contemptors have avoided the inevitable madness that normally consumes many other Chaos Dreadnoughts, fusing together the power of Mankind's bygone techo-arcana might with the diabolic forces of the Warp to create the ultimate killing machines of nearly unsurpassed power.