Warsphere

A Warsphere is a powerful Kroot starship, the last vestige of the ancient power and surprising scientific advancement of the Kroot civilisation prior to its move away from advanced technology. A Warsphere is effectively a flying town comprising a central section connecting the sphere that serves to house the main Warp-Engine and manoeuvring thrusters.

While the Warsphere's drives and thrusters are very reliable, they also possess poor power output. This means that Warspheres are extremely slow when moving through realspace, though they are sufficiently powerful to enable planetary landings, an unusual feature for a voidship this large.

Once on the surface of a world, the thrusters are often fired once more to bury the Warsphere, presumably to enable it to revert to its role as a traditional Kroot town. Warspheres are fairly rare and so will only be deployed in the case that the Kroot are getting a substantial payment or bonus from their employer, whether this be their traditional allies the T'au or another employer who has contracted for their mercenary services.

To travel at faster-than-light speeds across interstellar distances, the Kroot make use of Warp-Drives, unlike the T'au who have not mastered the technology, though how Kroot Warp-Drives function remain a mystery to the T'au, since the Kroot have no Navigators to make passage through the Empyrean safe and reliable.

Instead, the Kroot appear to have a natural affinity for navigating towards inhabitable planets, almost as if they were possessed of a sixth sense, though they are not known to be a psychic species.

The Warsphere is a gigantic structure -- easily the length of a battleship: each encompasses a volume greater than many space stations. Their axial Plasma Drive alone is larger than that of many other warships, blazing with the might of several suns to move the massive bulk of the Warsphere through space.

While slow and ponderous, extensive and powerful manoeuvring thrusters allow them to change facing more easily than most voidships. Despite the name, Warspheres are more than warships. Each is the home for many Kroot Kindred families, each long separated from their distant home system and not wishing to see their new one destroyed. When they do need to fight though, they are dangerous opponents. Each ship is covered with macrobatteries and can launch numerous assault craft loaded with fierce Kroot Carnivore squads.

KrootWarsphereKoronusExpanse — A Kroot Warsphere

Boarding or ramming a Warsphere is unadvisable due to the sheer numbers of the furious defenders as well. Larger ones often carry many valuables though and are sometimes the target of massed pirate fleets.

Unlike many voidships of comparable size, Warspheres are capable of planetary landing, an especially useful ability to aid in repairs or escape an enemy. This is truly a fearsome sight as the enormous mass of the vessel slowly eclipses the local sun as it rides the great fusion flames of its drive to the ground. The powerful drive engines tear apart mountains of earth as it settles, with the numerous thrusters blasting the terrain as to cocoon the vessel. Once dirtside, the ship acts as a local base of operations and often helps establish a new Kroot colony.

When ready, they lift off back into the void, literally an earth-shaking event that those left behind will speak of for generations to come.

In combat, Warspheres are somewhat unconcerned with manoeuvring, expecting that most other starships can outrun them.

Warspheres primarily fight defensively unless trying to break through a blockade to invade a planet, and usually flee if in any serious danger of being overwhelmed.

In the Koronus Expanse[]

Kroot Warspheres are an uncommon sight in the Koronus Expanse of the Segmentum Obscurus, but there are several that travel through the space lanes. Warspheres are dangerous opponents, simply because they are incredibly tough and have a large number of guns. However, due to the Kroot's mercenary nature, dealing with one may be easier (and more profitable) than fighting it.

Likewise, the Kroot do not often hire themselves to take on spaceborne foes, preferring planetary invasions or boarding actions where their talents are not wasted.

Notable Warspheres[]

Vawk Karaow

Dimensions[]

Hull: battleship
Class: Unique; xenos voidcraft
Dimensions: Approximately 9 kilometres in diameter
Mass: Approximately 47 megatonnes
Crew: Approximately 300,000+ Kroot

Sources[]

Battlefleet Gothic Resources: Tau Fleets (No Longer Accessible)
War of Secrets (Novel) by Phil Kelly, Ch. 15
Battlefleet Gothic Armada 2 (PC Game)
Rogue Trader: Battlefleet Koronus (RPG), pg. 101
Battlefleet Gothic Armada II (PC Game), Image