Furious Abyss

The Furious Abyss was a unique Imperial Abyss-class Battleship of special configuration, created and built in the Jovian shipyards of Thule which orbited the gas giant of Jupiter in the Sol System in the early 31st Millennium. This vessel was constructed in secret during the latter years of the Great Crusade by the Renegade Dark Mechanicus faction loyal to Kelbor-Hal, the Fabricator-General of Mars' Mechanicum. This vessel was constructed for the Word Bearers Space Marine Legion, who were secretly ordered by the rebellious Warmaster Horus to bring their unfettered wrath down upon their hated rivals, the Ultramarines Legion. The Furious Abyss was to play an instrumental role in the Battle of Calth and the Traitor Legion's destructive campaign into the Realms of Ultramar.

History
During the latter days of the Great Crusade, the Fabricator-General of Mars had already thrown in his lot with the traitor Warmaster Horus and committed to his cause. He had been tasked with the construction of a mighty vessel of unique design, built on a scale never before seen by man. Kelbor-Hal had allowed the commissioning of vast quantities of material, menials and munitions in the construction of the mighty king ship because it suited his purposes, the burgeoning desire, or rather his intrinsic programming. Horus had unfettered Mars in its pursuit of the divine machine, countermanding the Emperor’s chastening. For Kelbor-Hal the question of his allegiance and that of the Mechanicum was one of logic, and had required mere nanoseconds of computation.

The gargantuan ship, christened by the Word Bearers as the Furious Abyss, had been forged with such heavy armour that it could withstand even a concerted assault from a defence laser battery. Its blunt bullet prow, and the way its flanks splayed out to encompass the enormous midsection, spoke of strength and precision. Three massive crenellated decks extended from it like the sharpened prongs of a stygian trident. Twin banks of laser batteries gleamed in dull gunmetal down its broadsides. A single volley would have annihilated the loading bay and everyone in it. Cannon mounts sat idle on angular blocks of metal filled with viewpoints that hinted at the myriad chambers within. The rapacious bristle of the defensive turrets along the dorsal and ventral spines, and the dark indentations of the torpedo tubes, shimmered with violent intent. Spiked antenna towers punched outward from multitudinous sub-decks, interspersed with further weapon arrays and torpedo bays. The ship’s ribbed belly shimmered like oil and was replete with dozens of fighter hangars.

At the stern, the huge cowlings of the exhausts flared over the deep glow of the warming engines, primed to unleash enough thrust to force the warship away from Thule. Like chrome hexagons, the engine vents were so vast and terrible that to stare into their dormant hearts was to engulf all sense and reason in a fathomless darkened void. Finally, sheets of shielding peeled off the prow, revealing a massive figurehead: a book, wreathed in flame, wrought from gold and silver. Words of Lorgar’s choosing were engraved on the pages in letters many metres high. It was the greatest and largest vessel ever forged, unique in every way and powerful beyond reckoning. This ship, this mighty ship, had been made for the Word Bearers, and in the Jovian shipyards its long-awaited construction had finally reached an end. This was to be a blow against the Emperor, a blow for Horus. None would know of the vessel’s existence until it was too late. Steps had been taken to ensure that remained the case. The launch from little known, and even less regarded, Thule was part of that deceit, but only part.

The Furious Abyss was to be manned by one thousand Astartes, a full Chapter split into ten companies, each a hundred strong. All heeded the Word of Lorgar. The Legionaries were resplendent in their new crimson-coloured Power Armour, sheaves of prayer parchment, scorched trails of vellum writ over with litanies of battle, and the bloodied pages ripped from sermons of retribution were affixed to their battle plate, openly declaring their allegiance to Chaos Undivided. They were led by Fleet-Captain Zadkiel, a devout and zealous follower of the Word. He was charged by the Dark Apostle Kor Phaeron to lead the assault upon the world of Macragge, where they would strike the first blow against the hated Imperium of Man.

Cull of the Word Bearers
After their humiliation at Khur, thousands of World Bearers within the Legion detested the Ultramarines. Unknown to Zadkiel, the Urizen ordered a great gathering of his Legion while their primary fleet was already en route to Calth. The Primarch called for Argel Tal, the leader of the Gal Vorbak, and other Word Bearer officers who would eventually become commanders and apostles amongst the elite Vakrah Jal. The Primarch wanted their counsel on what to do with those amongst their Legion he no longer trusted. The Word Bearers had culled their ranks down through the decades, removing such unrepentantly Loyalist elements such as the Terran-born warriors of their Legion, but had carried out no purge like the Istvaan III Atrocity that Angron was so proud of. Lorgar knew that the loyalty of his own Legion to both him and his vision of Mankind transformed through an embrace of Chaos was never in doubt, but competence was another matter entirely. Lorgar asked what should be done with those warriors of the XVII Legion he felt were no longer reliable. Those whose hatred burned brighter than their sense. For tens of thousands of them -- whole companies, whole Chapters -- their rage was no longer pure. It was decided that these suspect elements of the Legion would be gathered into a single host and ordered to undertake the "sacred" mission to Calth to assault the Ultramarines that they had so craved. They would be led by such zealots as First Chaplain Erebus, the Dark Apostle Kor Phaeron and Fleet-Captain Zadkiel and were expected to martyr themselves in glory. The other Traitor Legions such as the Emperor's Children, Sons of Horus and the World Eaters might have purged their own ranks at Istvaan III, but the Word Bearers would proceed to purge their own at Calth.

Destruction of Thule
As the Furious Abyss finally launched from its moorings and was underway, a single drone ship had made its approach earlier into the heart of Thule and docked within the asteroid's core in a small antechamber for several hours. An hour earlier, Fabricator General Kelbor-Hal’s personal barge had departed the station, the head of the Mechanicum leaving his subordinate, Magos Epsolon, to organise the clean up after the launch of the Furious Abyss. It was to be the last vessel that left Thule. Pre-programmed activation protocols abruptly came on line in the Servitor pilot slave to the drone shuttle. A small incendiary charge ignited the fury of chemicals which merged within the body of the servitor. The immediate firestorm engulfed the ship and spread out, the growing conflagration billowing down tunnels and through access pipes, incinerating labouring menials. When it struck the gravity engine the resultant explosions began a cataclysmic chain reaction. It took only minutes for the asteroid to break into flame-wreathed fragments. There was no time to flee to safety and no survivors. Every adept, servitor and menial was burned to ash. The debris field would spread far and wide, but the asteroid was far enough away, locked at the farthest point of its horseshoe orbit, not to trouble Jupiter. It would not escape notice, but it was also of such little consequence that any investigation would take months to effect and ratify. None would discover the thing that had been wrought upon the asteroid’s surface until it was much, much too late. Much technology was lost in Thule’s destruction. It was a steep price to pay for absolute and certain secrecy. In the end, the Fabricator-General’s will had been done. He had willed the death of Thule.

Furious Abyss Unleashed
Fleet-Captain Zadkiel had been tasked by Kor Phaeron himself to take the Furious Abyss to Ultramar's capital world of Macragge and destroy it and to create as much havoc and destruction amongst the XIII Legion as was possible. During its maiden flight it encountered an Ultramarines' Lunar-class Cruiser, the Fist of Macragge, which was enroute to the Legion muster at Calth for the upcoming campaign into the Veridian System. The Fist was to make a short detour to the Vangelis space port to take on some more battle-brothers stationed there and the campaign to liberate Veridan would be underway. The Furious Abyss approached it's prey, undetected and unsuspected. As the Imperial vessel finally raised alarms at its approach, points of intense red light flared in unison down the vessel's port side as it turned to show the Fist of Macragge its broadside. The terrible vessel that had somehow foiled all of their sensors, even their astropathic warning systems, fired. The Captain of The Fist knew that they were doomed, and so, sent a desperate Astropathic message to the Vangelis space port -- warning them of the Furious Abyss.

A Deadly Warning
Vangelis space port was a vast orbital station built into a large moon and based around several hexagonal blisters into which docks, communion temples and muster halls were housed. The bustling space port was crammed with traders, naval crewmen and mechwrights. A large proportion of its area had been given over to the Astartes. Vangelis was a galactic waymarker and small numbers of Astartes involved in more discreet missions used it as a gathering point. Once their objective was completed, they would congregate at one of the many muster halls designated for their Legion and await pick-up by their battleships. Though little more than a company from any given Legion would be expecting transit at any one time, sectors Kappa through Theta were at the complete disposal of the Legions. Few non-Astartes were ever seen there, barring ubiquitous Legion serfs and attendants, though occasionally Remembrancers would be granted brief access in concordance with maintaining good relations with the human populous.

Ultramarines Captain Lysimachus Cestus and nine of his battle-brothers had been on Vangelis for over a month. They had been acting as honour guard for an Imperial dignitary at nearby Ithilrium and were consequently separated from the rest of their Legion. Their sabbatical had passed slowly for Cestus. The fact that The Fist of Macragge was in transit to extract them from Vangelis and ferry him and his brothers to Ultramar and their Primarch Roboute Guilliman and Legion filled Cestus with relief. He longed to embark on the Great Crusade again, to be out on the battlefields of a heathen galaxy, bringing order and solidity. Word had reached them that the Warmaster Horus had already departed for the planet of Istvaan III to quell a rebellion against the Imperium. Cestus was envious of his Legion brothers, the Death Guard, Emperor's Children and World Eaters who were en route with the Warmaster.

But Cestus would not be reuniting with his Legion. He soon learned of the destruction of the Fist of Macragge through an astropathic psychic death-scream received by the station's Astropaths as well as experiencing, what he believed, was a vision of Macragge. Cestus gathered the nine battle-brothers under his command and also acquired additional Astartes support from Wolf Guard Brynngar Sturmdreng and his Space Wolves and Captain Skraal and his World Eaters, who also happened to be in transition aboard the Vangelis space port. Skraal led 20 World Eaters on the Wrathfuland Cestus was determined to make the best use of them. Brynngar had brought the same number of Blood Claws, and while they were raucous and pugnacious, especially when forced into idleness in the confines of the ship, they did not harbour the same homicidal bent as the bloody sons of Angron. Barely 50 Astartes and the vessels of their makeshift fleet, Cestus hoped it would be enough for whatever was in store.

Captain Cestus also took the initiative and assembled a formidable interdiction fleet from the resources available at Vangelis space port and quickly departed in search of any trace of the Fist of Macragge or its killer. Necessity had forced Cestus's hand, and whether he liked it or not, this is what he had been dealt. As Fleet Commander of the Ultramarines 7th Chapter, Cestus was able to use his credentials to requisition elements of the nearby Saturnine Fleet under the command of Rear Admiral Kaminska, which included the vessels Bounless, Fearless, Ferocious, Ferox, Fireblade and Wrathful. Cestus was also soon contacted by a Thousand Sons' vessel Waning Moon, commanded by Fleet Captain Mhotep, who also wished to volunteer his services, though he had no squads of Thousand Sons Legionaries, just cohorts of naval arms-men at his command.

On The Killer's Trail
The small Imperial fleet reached the region of real space as indicated by the co-ordinates provided by Captain Cestus, the supposed site of the destruction of the Fist of Macragge, in short order. They found no sign of the Ultramarine vessel. There was merely a faint energy trace that matched the Fist of Macragge's signature. Read Admiral Kaminska's Navigator was able to detected the last vestiges of plasma engine discharge that lingered. Whatever ship had left this wake was gargantuan. The Imperial fleet followed these energy trail onwards. The Furious Abyss quickly discovered the small fleet on pursuing vectors in their wake. Within a short period of time the Loyalist ships made visual contact with the ship that was responsible for The Fist's destruction. They were shocked to learn that it was a Legion ship. Surely a vessel of the Imperium couldn't have fired upon one of its own? The vessel was of Mechanicum design and clearly made for the Legion. It was bedecked in the iconography of the Word Bearers.

Cestus was reluctant to attack the vessel, feeling that despite what had occurred the Word Bearers were still considered their Legion brothers. Perhaps the could account for their actions. Cestus ordered his vessel to draw close enough in order to hail them and demand to know their business, for the Ultramarines' Captain wouldn't commit his ships to a fight over nothing. The massive vessel refused to answer their hails. Cestus ordered one of their frigates, the Fearless to make approach. Captain Mhotep offered to follow in the Waning Moon, for he had a regiment of Prospero Spireguard standing by to board. The Word Bearers were his brothers; surely they had nothing to do with the destruction of the Fist of Macragge? Such a thing was unconscionable. Cestus would have his answers soon enough. The Fearless finally reached its destination.

A Line is Drawn
The Furious Abyss maintained its silent vigil. Interestingly, they identified one of the Loyalist vessels as belonging to Magnus's bloodline. Zadkiel ordered a secure channel be opened to the Waning Moon. The Word Bearer demanded to know what was this display of force was all about. Mhotep demanded to know what they knew of the fate of the Fist of Macragge. Zadkiel pleased ignorance, and left the Thousand Sons commander with a dire warning: great deeds were unfolding, lines were being drawn. Flame and retribution was coming, and those who were on the wrong side of that line would be burned to ash. Zadkiel attempted to persuade Mhotep to his cause, but the Thousand Sons commander was unmoved by his entreaties. Mhotep responded to the Word Bearers Fleet-Captain to prepare to be boarded. Having the answer he sought, Zadkiel ordered the Furious Abyss to fire a spread of torpedoes. They flew from the Furious Abyss towards the Waning Moon, which had positioned itself before the massive ship's prow. Starboard, a bank of laser batteries lit up at once, and beams of crimson light stabbed into the void. They struck the Fearless and the frigate was broken apart in a bright and silent flurry of blossoming explosions.

In the subsequent battle that followed Cestus' fleet was massacred, as they took disastrous losses: both the Fearless and Waning Moon, Ferox, Ferocious and the Boundless. Cestus was shocked to his core. The Word Bearers had turned on their own. He had admonished his brothers for even voicing mild dissent against a fellow Legionnaire, and now, here they were embattled against them. How far did this treachery go? Was it confined merely to this ship, or did it permeate the entire Legion? Surely, with the vessel crafted by the Mechanicum it had the sanction of Mars. Could they be aware of the Word Bearers' defection? Such a thing could not be countenanced. With these questions running through his mind like a fever, Cestus could not believe what was happening.

Satisfied with the destruction they had wrought, the Word Bearers no longer wished to tarry and instead entered the Warp and onto Macragge. Cestus gave chase, entering the empyrean to follow the Word Bearers. Though Cestus had countenanced returning to Terra to bring warning of the Word Bearers betrayal, the Ultramarines Captain had decided against this course of action. They would pursue the traitors and confront them when the time was right. They were at war with their brothers, and they must prosecute the fight with all the strength and conviction that they would bring against any foe of mankind. They would do this in the name of the Emperor.

Planning their Revenge
Cestus and his fellow Captains debated on their next course of action to take. The only thing they knew thus far, was that the Astartes aboard the massive vessel had turned traitor. What that meant for the rest of the XVII Legion, they did not know. Certainly, the Mechanicum built the vessel and that raised further questions about the nature of its construction. The fact it was kept secret suggests complicity on their part, at least to some degree. Something was deeply wrong. It was Cestus' belief that the Word Bearers were allied against the Ultramarines Legion at the very least, and, in so doing, against the Emperor as well. The Word Bearers had supporters in the Mechanicum. How else could such a vessel have been made yet none of them known of it? What the Word Bearers had committed was an outright act of war, but it smacked of something more. Though they had their differences, the sons of the Emperor were all siblings after a fashion. They would fight and die together against a common enemy. The Word Bearers were now just such a foe. They finally determined that they had to find a way to disable the Furious Abyss. Attack it when it was vulnerable. For the ad hoc force of Astartes were at least agreed that their common enemy was their brother no longer. They would be destroyed for their treachery, but not before they found out how deep it went. The Warmaster needed to know of the enemies arrayed against him. The remaining Loyalist vessels would follow the ''Furious Abyss' and await their opening.

Into the Belly of the Beast
The Loyalists soon discovered a moment of opportunity. The Furious Abyss had laid anchor in the Bakka System at Bakka Triumverion's forteenth moon where there was an orbital dock. Captain Skraal and his World Eaters took the lead in a daring assault mission upon Bakka Triumveron 14. Two flanks branched out from the central avenue and these channels would be taken by the Blood Claws, led by Brynngar, and a second group of World Eaters led by the only Ultramarine, Antiges, in the raiding party. They had to make the most of the Furious Abyss's current disposition, acting in subterfuge and in secret. The assault force was to infiltrate Bakka Triumveron 14, where the Word Bearers had made dock, in three teams in a classic feint and strike manoeuvre in order that they get close enough to scupper the ship at close-range.

The assault boats managed to dock quickly and without incident. But as they approached their target, the Sons of Angron found it increasingly difficult to keep their berserker fury in check. Though the orders of the Ultramarine, Antiges, had forbidden it, Skraal encouraged his warriors to kill as they converged on the Furious Abyss. A spate of bloodletting would sharpen the senses for the battle to come. The only directive: leave none alive to tell or warn others of their approach. The World Eaters pursued this duty with brutal efficiency and a trail of menial corpses littered the ground between the assault-boat insertion point and their current position. Such reckless slaying had not, however, gone unnoticed. The Word Bearers realised that they were not alone.

The Word Bearers ambushed the Loyalists and quickly overwhelmed them in the slaughter that followed. Brynngar witnessed Skraal and Antiges advancing towards the Furious Abyss with a small combat squad of World Eaters, scattering crewmen from the battleship as they went. Together with the Ultramarine, Antiges, and three of his battle-brothers, the World Eater captain had gained the Furious Abyss, entering into the belly of the ship through one of the embarkation ports and heading down. Their progress had been arrested inevitably when the onboard patrols had caught up with them. Skraal alone survived the disastrous mission. He remained a stowaway aboard the Furious Abyss. Skraal avoided all attempts to capture or kill him, as well as resisting being suborned by the baleful words of Zadkiel. Skraal survived alone and on the run inside the giant vessel for several weeks until he was able to link up with his fellow Loyalists during a second boarding action.

Hunted
Cestus and his remaining vessels hid behind Bakka Triumveron to keep the Furious Abyss from sending torpedoes after them. Tracking the Word Bearers vessel, they headed on course for a warp jump vector towards Macragge. Cestus devised the truth of the Furious Abyss's plans to assault the Ultramarines' homeworld. The Word Bearers would attack Formaska, a dead moon. A direct assault against Macragge would be suicide. But the debris from Formaska's destruction would achieve their ends indirectly. The XIII would divert forces to the aid of Macragge caught in the subsequent asteroid storm of the moon's demise and the Word Bearers would be able to strike as they were divided and take them utterly by surprise. It wouldn't destroy Macragge outright, but it would kill millions. The Furious Abyss would then use the debris like a shield, allowing them to get past the warning stations and satellites around Macragge and draw close enough for a viral payload to be effective. The juggernaut vessel would be powerful enough to weather the inevitable storm of fire from the defence lasers. The death toll from the viral strike would be near-total. Guilliman and the Ultramarines Legion would be divided, some of their forces probably destroyed on Macragge, when the remainder of the Word Bearers' fleet, commanded by Kor Phaeron, would strike. It would be doubtful if the Ultramarines would ever recover should the Word Bearers succeed.

The Wrathful limped from the Warp and went immediately to battle stations. Beams of azure light lit up all the way down the Wrathful's flank, and in seconds the blazing fury of her lances was unleashed. Explosions rippled down the armoured hull of the Furios Abyss, together with the immense blast flares of shield impacts. These wounds were a mere sting to a beast such as this and the Word Bearer vessel responded with a devastating salvo. As the crimson light rays of the Furious's broadside cannons spat out, the Wrathful was already moving, trying to bring the enemy vessel’s prow abeam of their lances. The shields of the Imperial ship disintegrated against the assault and the aft decks were raked by deadly fire, explosive impacts sending out chunks of debris and spilling swathes of crew. Still, the Wrathful endured, its last ditch manoeuvre bringing it away from the deadly barrage. With Cestus leading the assault himself, boarding torpedoes soared from the vessel’s prow, followed by a second volley from the lances.

Armament
The Furious Abyss also possessed an experimental weapon: a plasma lance embedded in its prow, developed as a direct fire close-range weapon for ship-to-ship combat, able to fire at point-blank ranges. The Furiosu Abyss could also deploy psionic mines when in transit in the Warp, to collapse stable warp routes when being followed by enemy vessels.

Notable Furious Abyss Personnel
[[Category:F]]
 * Zadkiel - Fleet-Captain of the Furious Abyss.
 * Baelanos - Assault-Captain and Zadkiel's private terror weapon.
 * Ikthalon - Brother-Captain and Company Chaplain, demagogue and expert torturer.
 * Reskiel - Sergeant-commander, Reskiel was a veteran of many battles, despite his age, and was widely regarded as Zadkiel's second, if not in an official capacity (that honour fell to Baelanos) and made it his business to know all the happenings aboard the Furious Abyss and report them to his master.
 * Malforian - Weapon Master, Malforian was responsible for commanding the ordnance of the Furious Abyss. He kept the crews of orderlies and gang ratings of the ordnance deck in line.
 * Ultis - Legionary, Ultis was a zealous youth with ambitious temperament who served as a Novice to the Chaplains of the Legion.
 * Sarkorov - Helms-mate, an unaugmented human with delicate data-probes instead of fingers.
 * Esthemya - Navigator