Cathedral Terra

The Cathedral Terra is a warship of the Imperial Household in service to the Shadowkeepers of the Adeptus Custodes. A jailer ship intended for hunting expeditions lasting solar years or decades under the auspices of Captain-Commander Arminius Uremedes.

Like all of the Custodes' warships, the Cathedral Terra has no standard class designation, though, it has the mass of a Battlecruiser. A unique vessel of pre-crusade provenance, this ship is thought to have been one of the earliest vessels laid down in the orbital yards of Luna, and its design speaks of its majesty of itself and its occupants. Entry hangers greet visitors with lintels of heavy brass and sculpted reliefs of ancient heroes, and weapon barrels and vanes are as ornate and gilded as they are potent. Many worlds have welcomed such a vessel into their orbital docks or felt the touch of its world burning fire, and so few have lived to see it depart with dread cargos in tow.

Ship Design and Functions
The ship is designed on patterns now lost to the greater Imperium, leaving its design one among a select few to sail the stars, if at all. Most striking is its prow, designed as an eagle with twin fanned wings which open about the primary weapon of the vessel; the Maelstrom Cannon, an arcane weapon of the Dark Age of Technology capable of reaching back and forward along a targets timeline.

The rest of the ship is designed to be as sleek as it is functional; slab plates of matte black adamantium bedeck it, and the dark livery of the Shadowkeepers adorns its hull, intricately embossed with refined auramite over key locations blended with the swirling astrological livery that blends with the vessels skin.

Its hallways within lead to numerous chambers of a multitude of functions; the typical stock as is to be expected of any warship of such provenance. Training chambers, armories, workshops, and specialized galleries reserved only for the Ten Thousand themselves where all others are forbidden. The lower decks are dominated by the Lock-Vaults; Sanctic Circle locked chrono-prisons accessed only by the auric gods themselves. The higher levels and palaces are filled with vast archives, study halls, debate forums, and a variety of esoteric facilities and research stations which further the scientific capabilities of the vessel in isolation of the Adeptus Mechanicus.

At its apex within a grand dome is a sphere of armaglass constructed in simmulacrum of the esoteric star maps of the Solar System. This is the bridge, and it is a hollow sphere containing numerous walkways and platforms. A hundred deck officers and Tech Priests work there in rotating shifts, attended at all times by a Custodian Overseer while in transit. Directing them is Lord-Captain Sunya Yi, flag officer to the Captain-Commander, and nominal commander of the vessel. About the ship in all but the most secret of places, patrols of black and bronze clad armsmen stalk the decks seeking eternally any sign of infiltration or mishap. The hardiest of will and soul are directed to venture on patrol down to the Lock-Vaults until they can patrol no further, such is the palpable aura of dread that escapes those cells.

Since it serves the Shadowkeepers, the Cathedral Terra has been equipped with powerful techno-arcana to enable the Shadowkeepers to locate and capture escapees of the Black Cells or target new prisoners. Among these devices are the Mimic Drives, which are an adaptation of ancient Heresy-era technology which disguises the auger profile of the ship, such that its might may appear as a system patrol craft or a fleet tender. When the need for true stealth arises, Eclipse Shields may be activated that inverts the Cathedral's void shields. This causes the Cathedral to become an invisible blank to even the most powerful augurs. And last of all are a multitude of redundant teleportation arrays of such precision as to be able to relocate its targets directly from location to location without having to return to the ship, or even place portable Stasis Oubliettes directly into the Lock-Vaults of the lower decks.