Chaos Heavy CruisersYesterdays BattleCruisers

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Cardinal Class
This Heavy Cruiser was originally designed in M33 to fill a similar role to the Apocalypse Class Battleship, being armed with a large number of long range lances capable of overwhelming enemy cruisers, as well as deal with swarms of enemy escorts and light cruisers. The concept being that the Cardinal could deploy these larger number of Lances to critical areas far faster than any Battleship could, as well as being a cheaper and easier to produce vessel. Unlike the later Gothic Class Cruiser, the Cardinal was largely successful in Imperial service in this role. While still not matching the Battleships awesome power, they where still able to present a serious threat to formations of cruisers and smaller vessels, while having an impressive speed for her Weight Class.
She also had enough armour to shrug off the armament found on most cruiser-type warships, and a greater number of Cardinals could be put in service with fleets due to their easier construction and cheaper maintenance cost when compared to the Apocalypse.
The Heavy Cruiser is also a unique vessel for being a ship that actively serves with both Imperial and Chaos fleets to this day (although in very small numbers with the Imperial Navy).
The Cardinals large scale fall to Chaos came with the appearance of the Mars Class Battlecruiser.
The Cardinal had similar firepower to a battleship, but couldn't match it: while the Mars Class (with her Heavy Macro Battery and Nova Cannon, while retaining dorsal lances) could match the firepower of a battleship as well as having carrier capacity. The Cardinal, while still powerful and useful to the navy, was simply outclassed by the Mars: despite many hardliners claiming her to be 'undergunned' (which only worsened the position and reputation of the Cardinal).
This fall from grace meant that many Cardinals where found to be neglected in maintenance and, gradually, the means/knowledge required to replace and repair the ships disappeared into obscurity. Outraged, many captains of Cardinals took their ageing vessels and denounced the Imperium in favour of serving with chaos War Fleets.
The Cardinal has seen service on both sides of various conflicts across the Imperium, first being seen in large-scale Chaos use in the Gothic war as a Heavy raider and dedicated Lance boat, her high speed and moderate armour allowing her to survive most Imperial retaliations. She frequently proved to be a deadly pair for the Carnage Class cruiser, and as the Heavy Firepower of chaos fleets, providing knock-out blows for Chaos cruiser formations.
She is also still in service with Battlefleet Bakka and Battlefleet Tempestus in the Imperial Navy, mainly because of her brutal effectiveness against pirates and Tyranids but also because because Bakka was one of the few Battle Fleets reluctant to take the Mars Class over the Cardinal, much of the criticism of the Mars Class coming from the Admirals of said Battlefleet.
A pair of Cardinals of Battlefleet Bakka served against Hive fleet Behemoth in defence of Macragge. One, the Silent Flame, was lost to friendly fire in transit to her defencive position, being believed to be a heretic raider. The other, Sebastian Thor, served with distinction against the Hive fleet. She defended her small area of space, with an escort of Firestorm frigates, Dauntless and Endurance Light Cruisers and a singular Gothic Class; against swarms of thousands of tyranid vessels. The concentrated, long range, lance firepower of the Cardinals small formation of Warships being enough to cut a fireary swath through any bio-ship foolish enough to try assault the lethal mini-fleet. The Sebastian Thor, despite losing the majority of her escort, would survive her intense week-long fire-fight and continues to serve with Battlefleet Bakka to this day.
The Cardinal is a Heavy Lance boat.
A timeless and valued warrior in any fleet, demanding the respect of any she faces with her impressive armament, high speed and armour for a ship of cruiser-weight.
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Acheron Class
Acheron Class was a test bed for an ancient experimental weapons system and powerplant found in Sector 51 by a patrol from Battlefleet Gothic, the origin and age of said weapons and power plant are unknown, being found within a space hulk which is believed to have been xenos in origin (although whether or not this is true, or simply captain folklore and rumour, is unknown).
The Acheron Class is effectively a Cardinal Class with standard Lances and powerplant replaced with the older re-discovered lances and generator. These old lances had a more efficient power distribution in its shots, generating less heat and distributing the extra power retention equally over the entire area of the lance impact as opposed to only the centre of the area of impact, which greatly improved the performance of the lance's penetrative power/damage to be more in line with what a Heavy lance would achieve (but with a lower power requirement, due to the smaller weight class weapon). The experimental powerplant also enabled these lances to fire beyond the range of most Cruisers and match the range of even the most long-range batteries on battleships, the frightening power of the generator also accelerating the (already fast) Cardinal chassis to speeds more typical of a light cruiser.
Despite the clear advantages these weapons and powerplant offered, the mechanicus refused to work with them and wouldn't produce any more Acheron Class vessels because of the shady origins of the Tech possibly being of Xenos design. This means that only one un-named (designated BF/67-A) and incomplete Acheron Class was built by the Imperium, although experiences from the trials of the Acheron inspired the Overlord Class Battlecruiser which had a largely copied (but less efficient) powerplant. The singular Acheron Class test subject was left immobile in orbit above a backwater outpost world in the gothic sector and was largely forgotten.
The Acheron would become a centre of attention again during the Gothic War however.
During the Chaos offensive, one of the Chaos strike groups stumbled across the Acheron in orbit above the seemingly insignificant world. Before blowing it apart, the Chaos admiral recognised its similarity to the Cardinal Class, and life-sign scans showed it was un-crewed. Confused, Curious and Cautious: the Chaos fleet closed in to inspect the new warship, and quickly discovered the power of the powerplant and lances equipped on the vessel, immediately setting to work getting the thing repaired, rearmed and crewed.
Two Weeks later, when work on the on the Acheron had nearly finished, an imperial fleet flagged by a Retribution Battleship arrived under strict orders to destroy the Acheron at any cost.
After a pitched 8-hour battle battle between the Chaos and Imperial fleets the now-named Chaos Eternus Acheron Class escaped into the warp under heavy fire from Macro Cannons, leaving behind a graveyard of Chaos and Imperial vessels in her old resting place.
The Acheron is the Advanced Lance Boat of the Chaos fleet.
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