The Contemptor-Galatus entombed a mortally wounded Custodian within a war-engine as artful as it was deadly, refusing to waste a warrior the Emperor had spent decades perfecting. Where common Dreadnoughts were siege-tools, the Galatus was a duellist: it bore a great galatus shield to weather punishment and a colossal power blade to answer it, fighting with a poise no ordinary sarcophagus-pilot could match. The interred Custodian retained the reflexes and judgement of his living days, and so the machine moved with unsettling grace, parrying and striking as though flesh still guided its blade. On the walls of the Palace such Dreadnoughts anchored the golden line, immovable points around which the Sentinel Guard fought. To break one was the labour of an army; to be caught within reach of its sword was, for almost anything alive, simply the end.
Order of battle
