Merciless

The Merciless is an Imperial starship configured as a troop transport, capable of carrying approximately nine thousand soldiers in fugue sleep. Its soldiers are housed in a cubiculum — a cryonic storage chamber of honeycombed hexagonal fugue creches located deeper in the ship, past sealed barrack dorms. The ship has a bridge equipped with holography and tactical systems. Its exterior airlock is heavy enough to require enormous force to breach; the Cielcin tear it open with bare hands. Internal spaces include a large hold and multiple barrack dorm sections.

At the time of boarding, the Merciless is severely degraded. Its fuel reservoirs have been drained of both warp and sub-light fuel. Most heavy weapons — including MAG drivers and missiles — are destroyed. Hull defense guns and one five-terawatt starboard laser cannon remain operational, though the batteries are nearly exhausted after the laser fires once. The ship's hull is breached in multiple places and sealed off in others. The hold's air has been evacuated, supplies are lost or taken, and loose cables spark from the hold's high ceiling. The ship is so badly damaged from the subsequent engagement with Iubalu that it cannot muster the energy to sound alarms.

The Merciless is en route to Nemavand carrying just over nine thousand Imperial soldiers in fugue sleep when it is captured by a Cielcin worldship. The Cielcin use it as a food supply, pulling soldiers at random from their fugue creches, draining the cryo-suspension fluid (TX9), and consuming them. By the time Hadrian's forces board the vessel, roughly seven thousand of the original nine thousand soldiers remain alive in their pods; approximately two thousand have been killed and consumed. Rotting bodies with missing heads litter the cubiculum floor. The Cielcin construct a twenty-foot monument of human skulls in the open space before the monitoring consoles.

Hadrian's forces board the Merciless and engage the Cielcin aboard. The battle with the Cielcin named Iubalu takes place within the ship. Several fugue creches are destroyed during this engagement. The fighting leaves the ship further damaged — hull breaches multiply, the hold is depressurized, and the vessel's remaining power systems are critically depleted.

The Merciless carries approximately nine thousand Imperial soldiers in fugue sleep at the time of its capture, with roughly seven thousand still alive by the time it is boarded. No named officers or crew are identified among the survivors at this point in the narrative.