The Orions are something of a rarity amongst the Imperium’s starships—a fast transport or star-clipper. Though they are designed for cargo, their lean forms, raked bows, and powerful drive tubes are less optimized for cargo hauling and more designed for traveling at speed. Orion-class starships are constructed to transport smaller, high-value cargoes that must reach their destination quickly or through hostile territory. Rather than rely on armed escorts, Orions travel alone. They trust in their speed to see them clear of most predators, and count on their weapons to send off those quick enough to keep up. Often they are successful, but Orions do have one major drawback. The redundant internal bulkheads and exterior armor that would normally be added to human ships has been forgone in order to increase speed and cargo capacity. As a result, a few stiff hits can easily cripple an Orion. The Marathon dates back to the Age of Redemption, and served the Olivares Dynasty for thirty centuries as a sprint trader carrying luxury cargoes between Pleasure worlds with all haste. Roughly a decade ago the Marathon was contracted by the Tül Dynasty to transport rare radioactive fissionable fuel isotopes extracted from the Tül established and Mechanicus governed mining colony of Rymer, and rush them to Castobel for processing before the half-life of the isotope rendered them useless for industrial processes. At least that was the plan, as documented by the ship's log until the courier ship was set upon by the dreaded race of Xenos psykers exactly five years ago. The Xenos psykers attacked and crippled the Marathon, before systematically abducting its crew, leaving the vessel to drift into an ancient Imperial minefield. Discovered by the Heretics of the prison barge, Pax Imperialis, the star-clipper was explored, salvaged, and ultimately claimed. Rebuilt by alien hands, the vessel now is mostly automated, with most of its subsystems controlled by a Xenos Machine Spirit which refers to itself as Mesme . Mesme 's associated data-crypts, logi-stacks, and cogitator interlinks bestow an equivalent crew rating of 35%, a 40% to hit when the shipboard weapons fire themselves, and a 70% when the Marathon performs its own maneuver actions. Additionally, the Marathon never suffers morale losses. After its restoration by the spaceborne Xenos suspected to be the Demiurge, the Marathon can function with a much reduced crew complement of only 10,000 most of whom are short stocky synthetic non-humanoid robots that propel themselves using some sort of maglev technology, similar in many ways to the mythical Men of Iron in composition if not appearance while a skeleton crew of the still living Heretics dwell in comparative luxury, their every need seen to by heretical Xenos machines. The areas of the Marathon that were rebuilt by the Xenos feature surprisingly cramped decks dominated by conveyor belts instead of corridors, pressure doors that iris open and close by themselves, as well as unnervingly self-aware ship components despite that the parts of the Marathon that remained untouched feature vaulted ceilings, gold plating, and House Olivares dynastic iconography. Each member of the command crew has his or her own ostentatious stateroom on the upper decks, while the mechanical devices installed to function as crew dwell in dark crypts in the bilges when not active. Speed 10 VU Maneuverability +35 Detection +10 Hull Integrity 26 Armor 12 Turret Rating 1 Space 40/40 used Weapons: Xenos Ion Lance (Prow), Missile Battery (Keel), and Cutting Beams (Dorsal) 40 power produced, 0 power free. Jovian pattern Missile Battery : Labor Intensive : This Weapon Component may only fire every other turn. Missile Storm : The missile battery gains a +10 to Ballistic Skill tests to hit a target within 4 VU, and a +20 to Ballistic Skill tests to hit a target within 2 VU. (Range 6 VU, Strength 5, Damage 1d10+1, Crit Rating 6) Xenos Cutting Beam : (Range 3, Strength 3, Damage 1d10+2,
Crit Rating 3; Special: Damage from the cutting beams reduces the ships
Armor by a number of points equal to the degrees of success on the
attack [maximum reduction of 3] and any Critical Hits scored always
inflict the Holed result) Xenos Ion Lance : Charge Capacitors : This Weapon Component requires a full strategic turn to power up, afterward it may be fired twice before requiring another full turn to recharge. While it is charging or recharging high powered non-essential ship components must be deactivated and cannot be used (such as the Warp Engine). Overcharge (6): The Marathon's gunnery crew can decide to push the Ion Lance past safe limits and discharge all the energy stored in both of the Ion Capacitors, increasing the damage dealt by 6 points but if the Ballistics Skill test is a 91+ the Ion Lance backfires and inflicts a hit on the Marathon instead. (Lance; Range 11, Strength 3, Damage 2d10, Special: For every 4 damage inflicted, one randomly selected Component on the target ship becomes Unpowered; Special: As long as the Marathon's A.I. Bridge and Targeting Matrix are functional the Ion Lance can maintain a target lock from one strategic turn to another. The Ion Lance cannot score Critical Hits) Essential Components : Abominable Intellect Bridge (1 Power; while functional the vessel can make one maneuver test, and one shooting test each strategic turn freeing the "crew" to take whatever extended actions they choose), Modified Lathe Pattern Class 1 Drive (+40 Power), Clemency Pattern Life Sustainer (3 Power), Miloslav G-616.b Warp Engine (8 Power, halves travel times through the Warp), Repulsor Shield Array (6 Power, 2 Void Shields; automatically repels mines), Servitor Crew Crypts (1 Power), and Warpsbane Hull (1 Power; Navigator may force a Warp Encounter to be re-rolled once per trip, and gains a +10 to all Navigate: Warp tests). Supplemental Components : Arboretum (Power 2; the bionic trees function as a backup life sustainer for just the upper decks), Cogitator Interlink (Power 7), Distributed Smuggler Holds (-40 to Scrutiny tests to find even with Augur scans but -10 to Extended Repair tests), Prow mounted Xenos Ion Lance (Power 10), Hold Landing Bay (Power 1; can manage as many as twenty seven spacecraft or equivalent cargo, and has been modified to jettison whatever it contains in an emergency), Keel mounted Jovian pattern Missile Battery (Power 3), Mark-100 Augur Array (Power 1), Mechanicus Auto-Temple, Observation Dome, Ostentatious Displays of Wealth (instead of lifts, the Marathon employs two jewel encrusted maglev trams that carry passengers throughout the voidship along golden plated rails, the corridors are equipped with mass conveyor belts, and every room has dozens of statues and fountains extolling the wealth and power of the Olivares Dynasty), Plasma Scoop (5 Power; instead of the standard Imperial Figurehead, the Demiurge installed a magnetic ramscoop intended to allow the Marathon to distill the upper atmosphere of a gas giant into fuel for the Lathe Pattern Plasma Drive), Dorsal mounted Demiurge Cutting Beams (Power 1), Good craftsmanship Servitor Crew, Best craftsmanship Superior Damage Control (Power 2; automatically seal and vent a burning Component to space when it is consumed by fire, so that the fire cannot spread to any additional Components), Best craftsmanship Targeting Matrix (Power 1; allows the ship to retain a target lock for up to two strategic turns and gives a +5 to shooting tests with shipboard weapons), Vaulted Ceilings, and Xenos Habitats (Power 1; +10 to Charm and Commerce attempts with the Demiurge). Special Rules : Ancient and Wise : included in above stats. Fuel Gathering : The Marathon is equipped with a Plasma Scoop and may conduct attempt mining operations on gas giant planets. This requires a Challenging (+0) Operate (Voidship)+Maneuverability Test; failure means the ship takes 1d5 hull integrity damage for every degree of failure, ignoring Void Shields (the deadly embrace of gravity does not care about shield barriers!). Success grants the ship a month’s operations without needing to refuel Servitor Crew : Having a servitor crew imposes a –10 to any Ballistic Skill Tests when non-servitors attempt to fire the ship’s weapons, as well as a –10 to all Command Tests made aboard the ship. In addition, the ship may not initiate boarding actions. Finally, the ship’s Crew Population can only be replenished by trading with the Demiurge for replacements, and cannot be replenished through pressgangs or emptying a world’s prisons. In exchange, however, the ship always counts Morale as 100 as long as it has a Servitor Crew, and all Crew Population losses are reduced by half (to a minimum of 1). The Heretics must also make a Tech Use Test (as opposed to a Medicae Test) when performing a Triage action. A good craftsmanship servitor crew has a Skill Characteristic rating of 35. Skeleton Crew : The Marathon automatically fails opposed Tests in boarding actions with 1d5+1 degrees of failure. Xenophile : Any Tech-Use Tests to repair the ship suffer a –40,
due to the strange and blasphemous nature of the machinery. Should the
character attempting the repairs have Forbidden Lore (Xenos), the
penalty is only –20. Also, the forces of the Ordo Xenos will likely
develop an unhealthy interest in the vessel and those who command it.
