Imperium of Man

In 995.M41, Abaddon the Despoiler launches the 13th Black Crusade out of the Eye of Terror with the intent to seize the world of Cadia and the surrounding worlds of the Cadian Gate, in the Segmentum Obscurus region of space and so allow the Forces of Chaos to assault the heart of the Imperium for the first time since the Horus Heresy. Due to massive threat that this invasion poses to the Imperium of Man , forces from across the Galaxy are mobilized to defend this sector. The Battlefleet Gothic while en route to Cadia to aid in its defense, gets a priority message from Fabricator-General Norse leader of the Adeptus Mechanicus. This priority message states that a highly advanced piece of ancient technology that could change the increase the powers of the Imperium was discovered on the planet Gildar Tertius, in the Gildar System. In order to prevent this device from ending up in the hands of chaos the Battlefleet is ordered to reroute its current course and meet up with the Adeptus Mechanicus Explorator fleet which will be personally lead by the Fabricator-General and Adeptus Astartes ships from the Silver Skulls Chapter (The Silver Skulls considers the Gildar system to be a part of their territory and no Imperial starship can travel through the area without their permission or escort). Once the Battlefleet Gothic met up with the Mechanicus Fleet and the Astartes ships, they proceeded to the planet Gildar Tertius at the fastest possible speed. When this combined armada of Imperial ships arrives in the Gildar System they discover the the forces of Chaos have beat them to the planet and were in the process of taking the device. A major battle ensues costing the Imperium over half of its forces, but these losses were not in vain as they had recovered the ancient technology lost on the planet Gildar Tertius. When this device was brought onto the Adeptus Mechanicus ship Technological Transcendence , the Fabricator-General personally identified the device as the Omnicopaeia -- a data-storage device containing every STC blueprint created during the Dark Age of Technology. With this precious cargo on board the remains of the combined fleet prepare to head back to Holy Terra, but the forces of Chaos were not so easily defeated. Tzeentch the Chaos God of Change, Evolution, Intrigue and Sorcery creates a chaotic warp storm that sucks the Imperial ships into the warp. But unlike normal travel through the warp, this chaotic warp storm transports the fleet out of the universe they know and into the FutureCraft Universe.

Standard Template Construct (STC) systems were advanced, artificially intelligent computers created during the Dark Age of Technology which are said to have contained the sum total of human scientific and technological knowledge. The STC was invented when human interstellar civilisation was at its technological peak. Introduced during the Dark Age of Technology before the Age of Strife, an STC allowed workers to build anything from a Lasgun to a fortified bunker or the fearsome interstellar warships now used by the Imperial Navy. STC systems possessed the ability to not just store information but also to produce new designs to meet changing circumstances. Examples of STC technology still in use are the Rhino Armoured Personnel Carrier, the Land Raider and the Baneblade. Imperial forces (especially those of the Adeptus Mechanicus) will go to any length to recover a lost or stolen STC, even if it means the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Imperial citizens. It is said that even the flimsiest rumors of an STC system will spark cross-galaxy journeys, titanic fleet search operations, and the spending of untold lives and treasure. A STC system was possessed by every group of human colonists before the Age of Strife, allowing them to build all of the equipment necessary for survival on an untamed colony planet. During the Age of Strife the systems fell into disuse, were damaged or destroyed, and so became increasingly rare, until they were lost entirely. In the Age of the Imperium, after so many thousands of years, it is unlikely that any have survived. What technological knowledge remains from the Dark Age of Technology survives only in the form of STC hard-copies that have been preserved and copied over thousands of years by the Tech-priests of the Adeptus Mechanicus, who believe that STCs are the most holy of artefacts.

The technology that generates a Gellar Field around a starship intended for faster-than-light travel was invented along with the Warp-Drive sometime in the 15th Millennium AD during the Dark Age of Technology. The technology, called a Gellar Field Device, allowed Warp-capable starships and their occupants to survive the extremely hostile environment of Warpspace, also known as the Immaterium. The Gellar Field protects the starship and its occupants from the hostility of the psychically-reactive Warp itself as well as from the predation of Warp entities such as daemons.The Gellar Field Device emits an energetic, invisible force field comprised of unknown subatomic particles called a Gellar Field, which essentially maintains a bubble of real space-time around a starship traveling through the Warp using the power of its sublight drives after using its Warp-Drive to pierce the veil between the physical universe and the Warp. Since entities native to the Immaterium cannot breach its boundaries to enter the physical universe except under certain very specialized circumstances, creatures native to the Warp are repelled from the boundaries of the Gellar Field. The weakening, failure, or collapse of its Gellar Field while a starship is traveling through the Warp would be completely disastrous, as was discovered by the crew of the Imperial frigate Eisenstein during its famous flight to Terra from the Battle of Istvaan III to tell the Emperor of Mankind of the betrayal of his favoured son Horus. Warp entities would tear the starship apart to reach and consume the souls of the crew. As such, the field must be active at all times. For the field to work, the starship must be entirely sealed; no open entrances that would breach the field's protective envelope are allowed.

The Warp-Drive, or Warp Engines, are devices integrated into spacecraft used by many intelligent races to actually enter the Warp, a parallel or alternate dimension to that of real space, making them capable of a form of faster than light travel known as warp travel or warp jumping. The Warp-Drive allows a starship to enter the Warp, travelling its currents until reemerging into real space light years away from the starting point. They are huge and bulky devices needing large starships to carry them. Starships fitted with Warp-Drives are known as Warpships or Warp-capable craft. Warp-Drives allow starships to enter the Warp and bypass light years of real space in a relatively short time, although the dangers associated with Warp travel are terrible indeed.

Servitors are mindless cybernetic drones created from a fusion of human flesh and robotic technology used to carry out simple, manual tasks across the Imperium of Man. While many Servitors are genetically-engineered, vat-grown sub-human clones created by the Adeptus Mechanicus who have their bionic implants installed after "birth," others were once truly human, usually criminals who fell afoul of Imperial Law, particularly a person who has offended or damaged the Adeptus Mechanicus. These unfortunate criminals will be sentenced to Servitude Imperpituis by the Arbitrators or Judges of the Adeptus Arbites and will be handed over to the Mechanicus' Tech-priests to be mind-wiped, reprogrammed, and cybernetically-enhanced to serve some specific, rudimentary function. Servitors are generally mindless, semi-organic robots, possessing only the most basic of instincts, though some are fully capable of speech if such functions and knowledge are programmed into them. Their brains are programmed to perform only the task they were designed for, whether that be maintenance, construction, or even warfare. The altered and fragmented brain of a Servitor functions poorly unless constantly supervised. Most will eventually go into a state of mindlock, babbling incoherent nonsense as the Servitor tries to assert some form of control over its functions.

A Dreadnought is a cybernetic combat walker of intermediate size used by the Chapters of the Adeptus Astartes as heavy infantry support for their Space Marine companies. Even the superhuman Space Marines are still mortal and can fall in battle despite legends to the contrary amongst the common people of the Imperium of Man. When the greatest of the Astartes are crippled in combat the Battle-Brother's body will be repaired and transferred into an armoured cybernetic sarcophagus outfitted with extensive life support systems. This sarcophagus is then interred within the heart of the armoured body of a Dreadnought if there is even a spark of life left. The Space Marine within the sarcophagus will control the robotic body of the walker and experience the outside world through cybernetic neural links and sensors implanted within his life support systems. Dreadnoughts are often mistaken by observers to be huge suits of battle armour or robots; they are similar to both and yet neither. Dreadnoughts are a combination of armoured walker and cybernetic life-support system; their pilots are neurally linked straight into the Dreadnought's cybernetic systems, and are able to use the walker as if it were their own body, although they are permanently entombed within its Ceramite skin until they are destroyed.