Tiamat

The Tiamat is a Gloriana-class Battleship constructed in the early days of the Compliance campaigns. Originally known as the Aegis of Terra, it was the Flagship of the Obsidian Wyrms until the later discovery and refurbishment of the Solace of Wisdom. As with all Gloriana-class Battleships, the Tiamat is a monstrously powerful weapon befitting its name. Although it is not one of the largest of the many Glorianas constructed for the Primarchs, it mounts the greatest number of advanced Mechanicum Archeotech and Lostech systems, which play a great part in its combat efficiency.

History
The Aegis of Terra was one of the first Gloriana-class Battleships completed on Mars and took to the stars as the lynchpin of the Second Legion - then the Terra Wardens - since those very early days. However, for its imposing stature the Aegis of Terra did not see the most glorious of track records as one of its first significant campaigns was the subjugation of the Corusco Cluster. The combined fleets of the Terra Warden and the Mechanicum of Mars suffered considerable damage and setbacks as they engaged in a serie of void actions against the surprisingly potent vessels of a rogue offshoot, the Mechanicum Rationalis of Novae IV. The Aegis of Terra played a major role in preventing the total annihilation of the vanguard fleet of the Terra Wardens when they first discovered the rogue Forge World of Viradel and were immediately beset by a sizable Novaen Warfleet.

The Aegis would cease existing in its current form during the decisive orbital battle over the Novaean Throneworld which was defended by a staggering array of orbital defense platforms and warships that included several Ark Mechanicum-class Battleships, which it would then fight alongside the Emperor's personal flagship the Bucephalus in a terrible melee. The Aegis of Terra was beset by the twin Arks 'Voyager' and 'Starskimmer' at the height of the confrontation and while it was able to destroy the Voyager, it was itself gravely crippled by the sustained exchange, its macro-cannon batteries picked off one by one by swarms of bombing runs and missiles that stuck with seemingly sentient accuracy. Limping with damaged engines, the Aegis could do little but brace to repel cyborg boarders that sought to finish the job.

It was thus no small amount of irony that after the armistice was signed in the wake of the cease-fire negotiated between the Primarch Elias Dammerung and the Arch-magos Sigma Gaevran one of the first tokens of goodwill presented by the Novaean Mechanicum Rationalis would be to repair and refurbish the Aegis using their own sprawling orbital shipyards. Further was the irony that the shattered Martian Macro-batteries and Lances were replaced by the very same weapon systems that had inflicted such damage in the first place. Several components were salvaged from the wreck of the Voyager while an equally great number was constructed to order specifically for this project, including a fearsome Lostech weapon prepared as a personal gift from Gaevran to the Primarch.

Thus refitted, the battleship had been so extensively modified that it was well agreed that a new name was in order. From that day forth, it would be known by the name of Tiamat after the mother of all dragons in the ancient Mesopotamian mythology of the very cradle of all mankind on Terra. This was seen as especially fitting as the Second Legion itself had been renamed to the Obsidian Wyrms after being reunited with their Primarch, in the honor of a Coruscoan specie of creatures that displayed the uncanny ability to resist the corrupting, insanity-inducing touch of the Warp itself. Though the Tiamat would eventually be replaced by the Solace of Wisdom as the mobile headquarters of the Obsidian Wyrms and Seat of the Primarch, it remained the single most formidable Voidship among their fleets and would serve as the Flagship of the 104th Expeditionary Fleet under Kyriel Dammerung.

As a result of the truly enormous amount of Archeotech being put in a ship that is not under the direct control of the Cult Mechanicus, the priesthood of Mars has formally put down a complaint against the Tiamat and petitioned to have it removed from the Legiones Astartes - preferably handled directly to their own mechadendrites - but Novae IV has riposted with an equally strongly worded petition against Mars' hegemonistic interferences. Rumors abound that the refitting of the Tiamat was at least partially motivated as perhaps the single most flamboyant act of purposeful aggravation of the Mechanicum of Mars, to agitate them in the fashion known in Hiver slang as 'trolling'.

Design
The Tiamat is a fusion of the immense might of the Terran naval design and the cutting-edge Novaean technology and is as such rightly feared by its foes. It is second only to the White Scars' own Gloriana-class battleship Swordstorm in terms of raw speed and its maneuverability is startling for such an enormous warship while its overlapping Void Shields are fitted with countless fail-safes and power re-routing conduits, allowing them to take even more punishment than would be expected from a ship of this size without shorting out. What truly makes the Tiamat stand out however is the sophistication of its Cogitators and Automata systems which greatly reduce the required number of menials on board and increases overall performance in all operations, though in counterpart a greater number of Tech-Adepts is required to keep all this technology going.

Much like the Ark Mechanicum it fell fighting, the Tiamat has now replaced many of its Macro-cannon broadsides with Hangars for assault crafts and Fighter-Automata while massed missile batteries make up the remaining space and replace the dorsal Lance turrets. The most prominent and fearsome weapon mounted below the Tiamat's prow however is the Maelstrom Igniter. In essence an upscaled Nova Cannon designed specifically for the monstrous frame and generatorium of a Gloriana-class battleship and guided by its superb cogitator network, the Maelstrom Igniter is terrifyingly accurate in its ability to artificially create Warp Rifts the size of several simultaneous Vortex warheads precisely where targeted. Such is the force of this weapon that the Rifts it generates usually remain for weeks after the initial detonation, causing whirlwinds of destructive energy that bar any safe navigation in entire regions of stellar systems until they recede.