The imperial palace was the first anti-grav construction anywhere to reach a thousand storeys. Once, the Empire's bureaucracy teemed through the lower levels. Now, with those functions vastly expanded and re-located to more modern premises, the palace consists of a lower guard level, eight hundred and seventy-seven empty levels, seventy-three floors of barracks for the guards and finally the storeys occupied by the imperial staff and the Empress herself. Since the palace is completely unconnected to the planetary surface, the main defence is external: flying guards and turret-mounted autocannon. Even so, half a million miles of passageways need to be patrolled, just on the offchance. It's a cushy job, but not a sought-after one. Most starmarines would take the danger of real combat over the sanity-crushing tedium of that labyrinth any time (at least until they got into real combat). The guards patrol in threes, known as "triples". Get into a triple with two good mates and you'll be fine. Get into a triple with anyone you don't like and what looked like Purgatory turns out to be the Inferno. "Clipsidera" boots and belt and thighboots from DAZ. FK Deja Vu Hair from 3DCommune.