The One Percent
Money Factory
Conquest-class Star Galleon
Spoiler
Show
Role and Notes:
The One Percent makes money. Imagine a fat rich man with a shiv. It’s slow, plodding, and stupendously wealthy and well designed. It’s designed purely for it’s recreational potential; a floating university where the greatest minds of the galaxy can come together and discuss the deeper questions of the Imperium in peace, comfort and plenty.
Every other ship in the fleet hates the One Percent, not least because it constantly gets itself into trouble. It likes to think of itself as a warship and likes the sound of it’s own macrobatteries firing so it constantly gets itself in the line of fire. It’s such a high value target, too, that this often ends badly for the One Percent. Moreover, due to it’s partially Xeno construction (no points in it’s favour from that either) it’s difficult to repair, sucking in valuable resources to recover the damage it takes.
The One Percent’s most useful function is to use it’s mimic drive to make itself seem like an additional battlecruiser in the fleet’s arsenal, or reducing itself to the profile of a raider when it can be convinced to keep a low profile.
Full Disclosure
Grizzled Bodyguard
Defiant-class Light Cruiser
Spoiler
Show
Role and notes:
The Full Disclosure does not have time for your ****. It’s a ridiculously wary ship, always watching the warp lanes and constantly scanning for threats. It’s said that the ship was ambushed by Dark Eldar slavers because it’s former Master of Auspex was asleep at his post, and his ghost dedicated himself to eternal service to make up for the slaughter that ensued.
In combat, the Full Disclosure’s role is primarily battlefield control. It’s a canny hunter, using minefields, fighter raids and torpedoes to control the battlefield and keep enemy ships away from the high value targets. The Full Disclosure suffers something akin to a PTSD episode during boarding actions and deploys armies of screaming murder-servitors made from it’s slaughtered former crew. No one authorised the inclusion of the murder-servitors and tenebro maze; as far as anyone can tell, the ship built those components itself.
Death and Gravity
Mechanicus Research Vessel
Jericho Class Pilgrim Vessel
Spoiler
Show
Role and Notes:
The Adapteus Mechanicus had proper laboratories back in the day; space station sized research and innovation centres. Sometimes terrible, terrible things happen in these research laboratories.
The Death and Gravity is one sixth of a much, much larger Adapteus Mechanicus Space Station, and one sixth of an enormous and spectacular temple to knowledge and research. Some terrible explosion ripped it off the core station and sent it spiralling out into space. The reason it's so cramped and stuffy inside is because the crew quarters, bridge, and warp drive weren't attached to it when it left it's home; these were all retrofitted onto the broken fragment of science vessel.
Visually, the Death and Gravity is a long, dark red spike, like a talon in space, slender and sleek, painted an ominous dark red and of beautiful appearance. At the rear it has had large amounts of external retrofitting done, cities and structures built onto the exterior of the claw. Bulky, external engines have been clumsily attached to the exterior. The interior is clean and crisp, environment controlled with all kinds of advanced research tech, smooth elevators and silver bulkheads. Huge vats of chemicals and advanced hololithic record archives line the Spike. The walls hum, emitting a faintly warm glow; the engine network is distributed across every wall panel and interior area in a network of gleaming silver wires. While these areas are spacious, high tech and beautiful, this is of marked contrast to the cramped and dismal living conditions of the crew quarters, bridge, and engineering decks.
The Mechanicus would, above all, like to see the space station the ship was broken from reassembled. It would be the most spectacular thing, they think, to recover the knowledge for which that station was built. The ship, for it's part, is morosely resigned to being what it is. It has an extremely depressing attitude, knowing that it's slow and unarmed, and has a tendency to try and commit suicide by drifting into asteroid belts. Piloting the Death and Gravity is as much a case of giving inspiring speeches and you-can-do-it!'s as it is of mechanical control. Even then it plods slowly and reluctantly, hoping that someone will just finish it off.
Greed
Rapid Response
Meritech-class Strike Raider
Spoiler
Show
Role and Notes:
The Greed is a sprint fighter which makes up for it’s weaknesses with it’s strengths. In combat it closes rapidly, firing a single volley from it’s missile battery to overwhelm the shields of a ship to open it up to an assault from it’s allies. Following this, the Greed fires it’s grapple cannon and begins close combat.
The Greed is tooth-achingly fast, more like a missile filled with a boarding action than a ship. It’s crew are intense people, determined to be the first ones aboard the enemy to load up as much plunder as they can. It’s the sister ship of the Fear, and the two ships have a long and bloody vendetta against each other.
Bulls are a sacred animal on the Greed, and wander the halls freely.
Fear
Ambush Raider
Havoc-Class Merchant Raider
Spoiler
Show
Notes and Role:
The Fear is the opposite to the Greed in role and attitude. It’s designed to activate silent running and drift invisibly into position, where it then opens up at close range on an unprepared ship with a devastating volley before retreating. The Fear has a long history of treachery and betrayal. When surprised, it responds disproportionately.
The crew aboard the Fear tend to always wear their voidsuits, a custom adopted from long periods of silent running. The crew are morose and sleepy a lot of the time, but after achieving a victory or being allowed to turn the lights on the entire ship enters a euphoric celebration.
Involuntary Bankrupcy
Fabricator Ship
Goliath-class Factory Ship
Spoiler
Show
Role and Notes:
The Involuntary Bankruptcy is a penal ship, where the worst of the worst go to serve out their sentences. The ship was designed to take these scum and make them profitable scum, with access to a variety of mining and manufacturing positions available. Designed with mutiny in mind, the Involuntary Bankruptcy is armed only with a non-damaging ion cannon and a plodding speed, making it easy to recapture should a crew revolution ever occur.
Conditions aboard the Involuntary Bankrupcy are hellish and the captain maintains authority with an iron fist. The guards regard the inmates as their own personal slaves, and to be born to the Bankruptcy is to be born into the worst of all worlds. The guards resist allowing prisoners off their ship, regarding them as their property, while prisoners will do literally anything to escape.
Trade Surplus
Main Line Fighter
Turbulent-class Heavy Frigate
Spoiler
Show
Role and Notes:
The Trade Surplus is a ship of the line. It’s combat tactics are simple: Proceed to the target in a leisurly fashion and then set it on fire. It’s never had to do anything else. It has a tendency to meander, wandering almost cluelessly, making enemies look elsewhere until they’re almost staring down the melta batteries.
The Trade Surplus, designed for this combat role and nothing else, is only partially complete; there is a lot of room for potential expansion within it to make it suitable for transporting cargo. It would be surprised at the idea of doing something that wasn’t mass immolation, but after thinking about it, enthusiastic about trying something new.
The Trade Surplus is amazingly reasonable as a ship; direct and to the point, but open to new ideas and fair. It has a bit of a history of changing hands, blowing up things that not everyone was happy to see blow up, and eventually it just kind of deafened to the idea of pleasing everyone at once. It accepts making enemies with a philosophical shrug.