Chaos claims the unwary or the incomplete. A true man may flinch
away its embrace, if he is stalwart, and he girds his soul with the
armor of contempt. What is known? The voidship designated Pax Imperialis was reclaimed from a space hulk in 566.M37, it was refitted and pressed into service by the Imperial Navy of the Scarus Sector where it served ably on seventeen consecutive tours of duty under the new designation of Aegis Imperialis. Crewmen reported strange occurrences aboard the ship, rumors of hauntings and spectral sightings abounded and it was subject to an investigation see [FILE CLASSIFIED BY ORDOS HERETICUS]. The conclusion of the investigation by [NAME REDACTED] was that the ship carried residual psychic residue that was amplified by the emergence of a nascent psyker [NAME REDACTED BY ORDER OF THE ORDOS MALLEUS] amongst the void born ship clans, and [NAME REDACTED] was taken by the Black Ships and the matter closed. However three months later the Aegis Imperilis suffered a malfunction to its Mezoa-pattern Gellar Void Integrant as a consequence was lost to the warp for fifty years, emerging in 896.M38 as a ghost ship, which was recovered by the Imperial Navy who retired the Aegis Imperialis to dry dock, selling off its supplemental components and weapons, where it remained mothballed it for several millennia. A detailed analysis of the voidships specifications was conducted, with an eye for particular weaknesses. Conclusions are as follows: First, the Pax Imperialis was outfitted with a Mercury-patten Plasma drive that was not designed for a ship the size of a Iconoclast which likely causes a strain on the vessels essential components as their is hardly enough power for all systems. The reasons behind the installation appear to be that the original Jovian-pattern Plasma drive was torn out and sold at auction on the authority of a mid level adept working for Battlefleet Scarus. When the ship was later sold into private hands, the only drives that were available were all intended for installation in Imperial Defense Monitors, and so one Mercury-pattern Plasma drive subsequently disappeared from inventory and was installed on the Iconoclast. When the new owners inspected the vessel they somehow missed or ignored the substitution. Secondly, the voidship was equipped with a Mezoa-pattern Geller Void Integrant combination Void Shield/Gellar Field, a modestly heretical piece of heretek, if the Void Shield is in anyway damaged, the Gellar Field cannot be raised and thus the vessel is incapable of safely traversing the Warp. This component more than any other is no doubt responsible for the Pax Imperialis's bad reputation as a cursed and haunted voidship. Thirdly, Master Iphengenia replaced the Markov Mark 3 Warp engine with an Albanov 1 Warp engine, a design known for its reliability but not its swiftness. So the Pax Imperialis figuratively crawls through the Warp at nearly half the speed of most voidships in its size/class. It also leaves a very particular and distinctive trail in the Warp, which should make tracking it very simple. Inquisitor Gan has procured a House Ortellius Navigator known for his ability to track voidships in the Warp, as House Ortellius and House Mercator are known to be feuding at the moment, if hostilities continue to intensify between the two House's the Paternova will likely sanction a full Trade War in a few years. Fourthly, the Pax Imperialis has a jury-rigged launch bay located in its ventral hold makes use of an external shuttle carrier frame which requires roughly 30 minutes to deploy its Arvus Lighter or recover it once it returns to the ship. The landing bay should also still contain Vladimar Crane's Guncutter. The presence of the jury-rigged launch bay means that the ship can neither quickly deploy or recover its shuttles, and the vessel is incapable of landing on a planet. This combined with the overall sluggish speed of the vessel likely precludes it from retreating from pursuit with its landing parties. Fifthly, and this is a detail that all acolytes should beware of, Master Iphigenia installed a Tenebro-Maze, equipped with automated Las pistols, and Murder Servitors to prevent prisoners from attempting to escape and also to repel boarders in the event that someone tried to board the ship to facilitate a jail break. Sixth, and most troubling...Ismael Iphigenia somehow managed to acquire and upgrade the Pax Imperialis's weapon systems incorporating three Disruption Macrocannons and four Gryphonne-pattern Torpedo Tubes . In 741.M41, the Aegis Imperialis was sold into private hands to raise funds for a Sabbat Worlds Crusade. It was retrofitted once again by its new owners, Ingeneri-Juta Holdings Unlimited, as a prison barge, which they renamed the Pax Imperialis and used to service several exclusive contracts that Ingeneri-Juta held to transport prisoners through the Calixis sector. In 777.M41, the Pax Imperialis is one of many private chartist voidships to accompany the Achilus Crusade into the Jericho Reach, under the captaincy of one Master Ishmael Iphigenia, a former Imperial Navy Commodore who acquired this captaincy as part of a retirement package twenty years before, a political expediency to remove the Commodore from a position of authority with the Offico of Naval Intelligence within Battlefleet Calixs. Although as his service records can attest, Ishmael Iphigenia was a disciplined and honorable soldier of the Imperium, several red flags stand out amongst his crew. Most notably is the personage of Ulysses Tristan Mercator, a Terran born Navis Nobilite from House Mercator, a Navigator House that has repeatedly been the subject of Inquisitorial investigations down through the ages. No one is above suspicion especially not a three eyed mutant. The rest of his crew stand out as scum, many of whom are doubtless guilty of some heresy or crime against the God Emperor or his Holy servants. The Pax Imperialis was under contract with the Adeptus Arbites to transport prisoners to the Penal World of Xyan Prime. It was also under secret contract to transport four Traitor Legionaires, as well as three Xenos specimens to a secret Ordo facility located in the Arkhas system for interrogation and execution. The seven items of cargo were placed in a cryo suspension chamber and then put into a special stasis hold in the bowels of the Pax Imperialis's super max secure decks. The Super Max secure decks were specially equipped with an emergency reserve power supply, in the even that the vessel lost main power the stasis cells would remain functional for upwards of 75 years perhaps longer. The Pax Imperialis is also equipped with an isolated and armored Machine Spirit datacrypt that is located deep in the Super Max section of the voidship protected by layers of defenses and the ships tenebro-maze. In an emergency, the Machine Spirit is designed to oversee the prison decks and prevent escapes. Master Iphigenia referred to the Machine Spirit as the Warden, and entrusted the override codes to a third party as a clause in his agreement with the Ordo Xenos, the identity of this third party is [NAME REDACTED BY ORDER OF THE ORDOS XENOS] and she is currently located on the Imperial World of Credos in the [LOCATION REDACTED BY ORDER OF THE ORDOS XENOS] region of the Orpheus sailent. Currently steps are being taken to recover the identity and/or location of the third party. However representatives of the Ordo Xenos have not yet been forthcoming with that information due to the recent unexpected death of Inquisitor Horosa Barnabas, who was responsible for contracting the Pax Imperialis in the first place. The Arkhas system is located within Tuam Transitional Nexus, a shallow region of the Empyrean where the Warp is becalmed and also the point at which three stable warp routes intersect. The Arkhas system has recently been designated a vital strategic resource to the Crusade, however unbeknownst to Crusade High Command the system has been home to an Ordos space station shielded by the most cunning of cloaking devices for nearly ten thousand years. The particular nature of the becalmed region means that Warp travel within it is particularly slow, it also means that Astrotelepathic messages have difficulty leaving the system, and are often delayed by days or weeks. To off set, this factor, the Ordo maintains a network of Astropathic Relay beacons that span the Tuam Transitional Nexus. In early, 819.M41 the Imperial Pleasure planet of Iatos, one of the twin Wicked Sisters was declared Exterminatus, apparently the forces of the 550th Crimson Cavaliers, a mixed regiment of Death Riders from Krieg and Crimson Guard had fallen to Chaos while garrisoning Iatos. Incidents of [REDACTED BY ORDER OF THE ORDOS MALLEUS], [REDACTED BY ORDER OF THE ORDOS MALLEUS], [REDACTED BY ORDER OF THE ORDOS MALLEUS], [REDACTED BY ORDER OF THE ORDOS HERETICUS], [REDACTED BY ORDER OF THE ORDOS XENOS], Xenos Ruins, and worst predicated the Exterminatus of the planet. Additionally, signed accounts from both the Imperial Commissariat, and the licensed Inquisitorial Witchfinder Vladimar Crane both condemned the Crimson Cavaliers for their many horrific misdeeds. The surviving members of the regiment were rounded up, forced to confess their crimes, put on trial, and confirmed guilty in short order. Many of the Death Krieg were summarily executed, the Crimson Guard were remanded to a Penal Planet where their impants were to be removed and returned to the Adeptus Mechanicus. The Wicked Sisters are still under investigation by the Inquisition. While on their way to the Penal World of Xyan in the Orpheus salient, the Pax Imperialis was overcome by mutineers who somehow either were working with the prisoners or simply released them to overpower the ship master Iphigenia control over the Pax Imperialis. The details are unclear. However what is known was received in an Astrotelepathic Warning bearing Vladimar Crane's Inquisitorial Cipher, and suggests that Master Iphigenia was slain in the mutiny and that the mutineers were collaborating with the prisoners, possibly even being directed by the Heretic members of the Crimson Cavaliers. Triangulation of the Warning suggests that it originated near the Gamma Quindecimus Binary Star system which is home to an Adeptus Mechanicus mining colony. At top speed, the Occultus Confessio can deliver an Inquisitorial strike cell to the colony of Rymer in approximately 6-13 weeks.
