Contemptor Dreadnought

A Contemptor Dreadnought of the First Legion houses a fallen hero whose service Caliban's oaths will not permit to end, an ancient interred within a war-engine and woken only when the Legion's need is greatest. Faster and fiercer than the patterns that would follow in later millennia, the Contemptor strides into battle with a predator's grace, its atomantic heart driving fists and cannon with strength no living legionary could match.

Within the First Legion these ancients are objects of quiet reverence, their sarcophagi tended by the same secretive orders that govern every other facet of Legion life. Many bear the marks of one wing or another, having carried the Deathwing's endurance or the Firewing's precision in life and continuing to serve that same calling in undeath. During the Heresy, when every veteran counted, the Dark Angels roused their sleeping ancients in numbers, sending centuries of accumulated battle-wisdom striding once more into the dark.