Warhammer 40k Lore: What is the STC?

 Warhammer 40k Lore: What is the STC?

Origins

The STC, mythical archaeotech coveted by the Adeptus Mechanicus. Even a single fragment of this technology is incalculably valuable, but what is it exactly?

The Standard Template Construct was a form of automated problem solving machine developed by the early human extra-solar explorers to empower the first great colonization efforts to tame their environments, craft what they needed, and survive in hostile conditions. Before Navigators and safe (relatively) warp travel human expansion was conducted by the long march ships. These were massive stellar vessels that would spend centuries or even millennia in transit from where they launched to the remote world they were assigned to settle. Identified from afar these worlds were habitable as far as could be discerned but that did not mean they were safe or stable environments to settle. Early colonists faced hostile xenos races, highly dangerous flora and fauna, wildly varying gravity, geology and atmospheric conditions and worse, once the ships reached their destination there was no going back. The long march ships were one way transport, designed to be just able to get to their destination where they would be scuttled on the surface and the carcass of the ship cannibalized to found the new colony. There still exist the ancient bones of long march ships deep beneath many hive cities across the galaxy though precious few now know of their existence or dare to plumb their depths for secrets.

The biggest advantage that early colonists had once they had arrived at their destination was the standard template construct. Controlled by highly advanced artificial intelligence constructs and possessing a wide array of autofactory, refinery and processing capabilities the colonists simply brought their problems to the STC and asked for a solution. When presented with a challenge and available resources the STC could produce easy to manufacture and maintain technologies to solve those challenges. From basic hab units and atmospheric recyclers to terraforming engines and genetic manipulation technologies. The STC could produce a nearly limitless variety of technologies and machines based on the vast store of human scientific and engineering knowledge stored in it's databanks. Even better the STC could alter these schematics at will to suit the environment and resources. Plasteel, ferrocrete, ceramite, armaglass, prometheum, all of these basic resources come in a wide variety of specific forms to create these generally recognized, universal building blocks. In truth something as ubiquitous as the rhino armored personnel carrier could come in all manner of forms. Prometheum, decayed biological matter processed into combustible fuel, is by far the most common fuel for these machines but the STC could absolutely produce versions powered by miniaturized plasma reactors, galvanic drives, anti-gravitic motors and much more. In this way the STC system could customize it's produced designs for the specific environment and needs of the colonists. Through the STC countless worlds across the galaxy were tamed by those early human explorers and colonists. Civilizations grew and prospered and the stellar domain of man grew exponentially.

However this golden age of expansion could not last forever. Rampant and unchecked scientific advancement had led a great many worlds of the human stellar empire to embrace ever more advanced artificial intelligences, to manipulate the human genome in ever more extreme and perverse ways and to weaponize the growing number of psykers appearing in the population. It was only a matter of time before pride and arrogance would see mankind face an apocalyptic fall. When it came the doom of mankind's golden age did not come all at once or take a single form. The Men of Iron, the intelligent thinking machine men turned against their masters and unleashed bloodshed on an unimaginable scale. Weapons of unthinkable power and horror were unleashed, from bio-phages capable of wiping out all life on a world in hours to devices capable of warping space-time and violating the laws of physics. Countless worlds drowned in blood and chaos but that was only the beginning. In their desperation to defend themselves mankind unleashed the worst of their weapons in return including bio-engineered super-soldiers and monsters of all shapes and sizes. Yet what they unleashed could not be so easily contained and still more devastation was wrought. The last great blow to mankind was the psyker, individuals of incredible, supernatural power that had been embraced as the next evolution of mankind turned into a disaster of unparalleled proportions. Opening one's mind to the warp is a horrifically dangerous act and one mankind would learn the costs of the hard way. Entire worlds were torn apart in warp storms, systems drowned in madness, cities turned into living statues of flesh, the bodies making up every building and street somehow still alive and experiencing eternal agony.

Ultimately mankind would prevail against the Men of Iron and forbid the employment of artificial intelligence for all time, genetic manipulation would become taboo and psykers became objects of fear and suspicion, often culled at birth. Nevertheless the damage was done, the galactic empire of man had been irrevocably shattered, space travel between systems was nearly impossible and many thousands of worlds had been lost to ruin or madness. For many long years the surviving human colony worlds would have to fight for their survival alone and unaided. Many worlds slipped into technological decline, the damage to their infrastructure and population so severe that none now remained who could rebuild. Others developed bloodthirsty religions that purged the mutant and psyker on sight, still others retreated into underground arcologies or mountain fortresses. Superstition, paranoia and xenophobia became widespread as the embittered and desperate survivors stared up into the star-filled sky no longer with hope and anticipation but suspicion and fear. All of that would change with the coming of the Emperor of Mankind.

The Great Crusade

Terra, the cradle of mankind, had not weathered the nightmare of old night well. All unity and progress had vanished and been replaced with madness, bloodshed and destruction. The once great cities from which colonists had departed for the long march ships were now largely ruins. The great oceans had been burned away, forests obliterated, mountains had been split and terrible weapons had left their scars on the soil of old earth forever. Radiation, alchemical nightmares, toxic sludge, vast minefields and many other hazards marked the ruined wastes broken by scattered islands of survivors. Those who still lived on Terra had devolved into roving bands of techno-barbarians, empires of madness ruled by sorcerer kings and defended by armies of gene-wrought abominations. Technology and water were hoarded and precious, fought over constantly in never-ending conflicts. Until the Master of Mankind launched his war of unity. Emerging from seemingly nowhere at the head of an army of gene-augmented super-soldiers who were largely stable, disciplined and well-equipped the Emperor began his campaign of conquest. Slowly but surely the scattered remnants of humanity on Terra were brought to heel, one empire, one kingdom, one tribe at a time. Some were annihilated, their genetics too twisted, their natures too debased, others were decimated, their armies slaughtered and cities burned to set an example so others would capitulate without a shot fired. Still others negotiated, sided with the Emperor willingly and contributed soldiers and materiel to his armies and all the while as the Emperor cleansed Terra of the madness of old night he was searching, salvaging, reclaiming what was lost.

Much of the knowledge the Emperor claimed from his defeated foes was reserved for the Imperial household alone. Any weapon or device capable of manipulating time or weaponizing the warp was forbidden, gene manipulation was also forbidden and all adrathic weapons were claimed as the sole right of the Emperor and his Custodian Guard. Many of the weapons of Old Night were heavily restricted, alchemical munitions, rad weaponry, phosphex and virus bombs were reserved for only the highest Imperial authorities to use and only in the most extreme of circumstances. It took time and a great deal of blood but eventually the Emperor united the entirety of Terra under the banner of Unification. His original warriors, the Thunder Legions had outlived their usefulness and were gone, replaced by the more stable and mass-produced legions of the Astartes. The Selenar Cults of Luna were brought to their knees and forced to serve the Emperor, turning their gene-labs to the task of transforming hundreds of thousands of young boys into the super-human soldiers the Emperor needed for his legions. Next the Emperor turned to Mars, the home of the machine priests, techno-savants who worshiped technology as a religion. The Emperor descended to the surface of Mars and there met a vanguard of Imperial Knight Titans from House Taranis who demanded to know his identity and business. The Emperor merely approached and laid a hand on the knee-joint of the lead knight and with that touch revitalized the warmachine. Centuries of malfunction fell away and the joint moved freely as though fresh from the forge. Amazed the knights of House Taranis declared the Emperor as the Omnissiah, the fabled prophet of their Machine God. The rest of Mars would quickly follow suit and with them came factories of monumental size and capability which would produce the weapons, armor, warmachines and ships the Emperor needed for his next great endeavor, the Great Crusade. 

Armed and armored as never before and numbering in the tens of thousands the Emperor and his Legions embarked on a centuries long campaign of reconquest. Setting out from Terra in all directions the expeditionary fleets of the Great Crusade would bring thousands, tens of thousands of worlds back into the fold of a single human empire. Some came willingly, others had to be subjugated by force and still others were too degraded to salvage and had to be cleansed, the slate wiped clean for new colonists to take their place.

In all of these instances the armies of the Emperor and the priests of Mars carried out a secondary but vital task; salvaging any and all traces of archaeotech that could be found on these worlds. Ancient computational engines the locals worshiped as machine gods, the remains of once mighty warmachines long dormant, physical parchment drawings of machine schematics and blueprints, all of these were taken, catalogued and added to the wealth of rediscovered technology the forces of the Emperor would employ. New weapons and machines would join the armies of mankind over the course of the Great Crusade. The Land Raider and Land Speeder discovered by Arkhan Land in the labyrinths of Mars and the Leman Russ tank rediscovered by the Primarch of the Space Wolves are a few such examples. In each of these cases these discoveries were the result of locating remnants of STC technology. Even many thousands of years after it's development the ancient STC engines of the long march ships had still left an indelible stamp on humanity. So much had been lost and any scrap of that ancient lore was of unimaginable value. The scattered Forge Worlds of the Mechanicum coveted these scraps of lore jealously and shared them only with great reluctance. Some forges became the sole guardians of entire patterns of technology from the unique Sarum-pattern power armor helmets produced by the Forge World of the same name to the plasma weapons of unrivaled quality produced by Ryza, each forge sought to wrest every scrap of tech-lore they could from the rediscovered worlds of mankind and hoard them for themselves. Entire cadres of tech priests, the exploratory expeditions of Rogue Traders militant, the techmarines of the Astartes legions and more searched tirelessly through the ruins and remains of every colony world they found whether it's inhabitants had survived old-night or not in search of even the smallest, most incomplete fragment of STC knowledge. Incomplete or partial schematic printouts, data-crystals holding fragmentary remnants of data, millennia old cogitators whose barely functional cores held even the smallest slices of the tech-lore, all of these things and more were prizes that the vanguard of the Emperor's armies sought to claim at any cost.

The Horus Heresy

 For two and a half centuries the Great Crusade raced across the galaxy, claiming tens of thousands of worlds for the Emperor's new Imperium of Man. Many lost technologies, artifacts and relics of great power were reclaimed and it seemed, for a moment, that mankind would reclaim it's dominance of the galaxy. But it would not be so, for the Emperor's greatest general would betray him and lead half of his armies into treachery and madness. The Warmaster Horus, alongside fully half of the astartes Legions, betrayed his father the Emperor and launched a campaign of terror and slaughter across the galaxy. Kelbor Hal, the Fabricator General of Mars, sided with Horus and plunged the surface of Mars into brutal civil war. Whole forges were destroyed and countless irreplaceable artifacts and fragments of data were lost forever. Even worse across the galaxy whole Forge Worlds fell into heresy, their priests turned to madness and the technology they hoarded twisted and abused beyond recognition. By the time the Warmaster was defeated in orbit of Holy Terra the damage had been done. Countless patterns of weapon and warmachine would disappear from the armies of the Imperium, the Sicaran, Spartan and Cerberus tanks, Falchion super-heavies, phobos pattern Land Raiders all gone. The advanced mark four variant of power armor would be phased out in favor of the more easily produced and maintained mark six and seven variants. Tartaros and Cataphractii Terminator Armor became irreplaceable, flare shield technology would disappear alongside conversion beamers and volkites and even the anti-gravitic tanks of the Legio Custodes became all but impossible to reproduce. Cerastus and Acastus variants of the Imperial Knights would all but vanish from the armories of the knight houses and once mighty armored vehicles such as the Malcador and Stormhammer would become rarely seen relic warmachines. Contemptor, Deredeo and Leviathan pattern dreadnoughts would vanish from the ranks of the reformed Adeptus Astartes chapters and so would the Dracosan, Aethon, Valdor and Aurox machines of the Solar Auxilia. The knowledge to produce phosphex and the schematics for the las-impulsor would be lost, though the latter would eventually be rediscovered. The mighty Stormbird gunships and Xiphon Interceptors would take to the skies no more after the Heresy. The list of everything the Imperium lost in the fires of the Horus Heresy is truly too long to even begin to fully recount, much of it likely never to be rediscovered.

The Quest for Knowledge

In the aftermath of the Horus Heresy the reformed Adeptus Mechanicus returned to the task of rediscovering the lost secrets of mankind with alacrity and zeal. For the last ten thousand years fleets of daring or just plain mad explorators have scoured the galaxy for lost vaults of technology, scraps of STC data or undiscovered survivors of Old Night. The process has been slow and painful but over time the Imperium has clawed back some of that lost knowledge. The Ecclessiarchy rediscovered and hoards the STC blueprints for the Immolator and Exorcist armored vehicles while the Blood Angels chapter and their successors retain exclusive access to the Baal-pattern Predator designs and the sons of Sanguinius were instrumental in recovering the blueprints for the Storm Raven gunships. The Dark Angels employ unique variants of astartes combat bikes and land speeders unknown to the armories of other chapters while the Space Wolves uniquely possess the Stormfang and Stormwolf gunships and helfrost energy weapons. The ranks of the Imperial Knights regained access to the las-impulsor and thus the Preceptor variant of armor after a daring mission into the depths of the Eye of Terror. Razorback tanks and Dorn heavy tanks were the result of rediscovering lost fragments of STC data. Many things have been rediscovered but many more remain lost to time. Nevertheless the search continues, endless and tireless. The discovery of even the smallest fragment of an STC blueprint can bring vast fortunes to those who found it and can reshape the prospects of entire sectors of the galaxy. Rumors persist that House Van Saar of Necromunda possesses an incomplete STC engine deep within their household domains which allows them to produce their rare and advanced weaponry and equipment while the priests of Mars fervently negotiate with every rediscovered Imperial Knight household in the hopes of gaining access to any trace of ancient STC lore or schematics held within the archives and vaults of these pre-Imperial institutions. To this day no complete, functional standard template construct engine remains in the galaxy though it remains the dream of every tech priest of Mars to discover such a wonder of technology intact, should such a thing ever be discovered the wealth of knowledge the Imperium stands to gain from such a find is truly beyond imagining. Much of the technology created during the Golden Age of human expansion remains a mystery even to the adepts of Mars, feats of science and engineering that have never been replicated and whose manufacture beggars the belief of even the greatest minds of Mars. Perhaps one day the Mechanicus and the Imperium will rediscover the lost secrets of the golden age of expansion or perhaps genius rogues like Bellisarius Cawl will finally break free from dogma and superstition and rediscover those secrets on their own, but such a future remains to be seen and in the endless battlegrounds of the far future almost anything is possible.