(Okay, I got inspired and managed to finish fixing up the intro and the dossier. Check main thread for instructions)
I. Your Orders
Greetings,
In the name of the Emperor, you are to proceed to the Saint Cyr sector with all haste. You will operate under a team that shall be designated “Team Vermillion”, answerable only to the Lord Inquisitor himself.
You may choose whichever form of transport you see fit to travel to Saint Cyr – the Imperium shall reimburse any expense within reasonable limits.
The team’s ultimate task is to investigate and solve the mystery of Inquisitor Makarov’s death, as well as the criminals behind the Luther incident.
The team’s secondary task is to ensure the Imperium maintains control over the Saint Cyr sector. As you well know, the 13th Black Crusade has been halted – but just barely. Losing Saint Cyr WILL have disastrous consequences for the Imperial forces still fighting near the Eye of Terror.
Therefore, the team, at their own discretion, may also choose to investigate any potential Xeno, Mutant, or Heretic threat. Understand that you may be working with members of a different Ordo, but the common good of the Imperium must prevail.
The rendezvous point for the team will be the Three Sisters Shipyard. It is a joint Sororitas-Mechanicus facility. Request an audience with Magos Tachikan. He will provide you with some further information, as well your new ship.
Do not fail me.
Lord Inquisitor Ramza
=I=
P.S. I have included a dossier containing some basic information regarding the Saint Cyr system. I’ve also included some notes from other Inquisitors based in the area. Apologies, for my master can get a bit forgetful at times. He’s a busy man. Much like his son. Or rather, how his son used to be.
Interrogator Yazmine
=I=
The Inquisition Campaign: Briefing Materials
Moderator: Moderators
The Inquisition Campaign: Briefing Materials
Last edited by Zinegata on Wed Jun 02, 2010 3:13 pm, edited 1 time in total.
II. The Dossier
A Brief History of the Saint Cyr Sector
The campaign takes place in the “Saint Cyr” sector (formerly known as the Ishbal Sector), in Segmentum Obscuras. It is a sector only recently liberated from the iron grip of Chaos.
The entire sector had been under Chaos occupation for over two hundred years, resisting numerous efforts by the Imperium to reclaim them. Over a hundred Imperial Guard regiments, two Imperial Navy battle squadrons, and even an entire chapter of Space Marines had been lost in four separate and equally fruitless offensives against the Chaos forces during these two dark centuries.
All this changed five decades ago, when a man named Cyr Thorne sparked a rebellion amongst the common people of Ishbal. With suicidal bravery, they began to attack the Chaos forces occupying their homeland. Although billions of lives would be lost (and Cyr himself would be martyred), the rebellion weakened the grip of the Chaos forces in the sector.
This allowed an Imperial battlegroup under the command of Grand Marshal von Graf to establish a foothold in the sector, liberating the agricultural world of Fusilier VI (henceforth renamed Von Graf’s Hope). At the same time, a squadron of Imperial frigates under the command of Captain (later Admiral) von Trump attacked and destroyed the Chaos fleet (including the hitherto undefeated battleship No Quarter Given) while it was still stranded in port, crippled by a lack of supplies due to the rebellion. Though it would take ten more years and the active support of the sector-wide rebellion, von Graf’s offensive finally liberated the Ishbal sector, which was henceforth renamed “Saint Cyr” in honor of its fallen martyr.
Since then, the sector has experienced great prosperity. Funds and resources have flowed from Holy Terra, allowing the reconstruction of numerous worlds, particularly in the new sector capital. Pilgrims have begun to flock at the site of Saint Cyr’s martyrdom, where many claim to have experienced miraculous healing thanks to the power of the Emperor.
Still, scattered cults of Chaos worshippers are known to have survived. It is also rumored that Inquisitors and Rogue Traders are combing buildings once occupied by the planet’s Chaos Champions, hoping to find artifacts of great power to use against the archenemy. Even the Imperial Guard is taking interest in the sector, seeing it as a potential staging area for more reinforcements bound for Cadia. In addition to the PDF and twelve Cyrian Regiments, seven “off-world” regiments have reinforced the sector, notably the elite 776th Elysians and the 95th Pardus Super-Heavy Tank Regiment.
Notable Systems & Planets in the Sector
The Dantrian System
Dantrian is an almost dead star, producing only minimal amounts of heat and light. It would have been completely unremarkable if not for the “The Three Sisters”
The Three Sisters: These are three small “sister” planets orbiting each other in a unique configuration, they are often considered to be one inseparable entity by both Imperial scribes and the common people alike. At the center of the three planet’s orbits is a stable Lagrange point – a point where the gravitational effects of all celestial bodies cancel each other out – making it an ideal site for a space shipyard. Before the Chaos occupation, it was the site of a major Mechanicus facility. However, since the liberation the facility has fallen under the control of the Order of the Martyred Rose (represented by Canoness Ayala), who are using the facility to construct and refit powerful craft for the Ecclesiarchy. The Tech-Priests however, have been lobbying to get control of the facility back, as the bulk of the shipyard’s residents are from the Mechanicus.
The Sisters Shipyard is an immense facility and is almost a planet on its own right, with a workforce of nearly five hundred million. The three surrounding planets are themselves mostly airless rocks, but they also hold numerous space defense batteries and military garrisons to help defend the shipyard. There are also vast underground stores for food, weapons, and ammunition to supply the shipyard in case of a siege. The 776th Elysians and the untried 544th Harakoni are stationed here, along with several squads of Celestian Battle Sisters. The Saint Cyr battle squadron, including the battleship Tromp’s Victory, is also home-ported here.
There are no known Chaos forces remaining in the area, albeit the wreck of the No Quarter Given remains un-salvaged on the surface of Dantrian III. An Elysian landing party sent to investigate the wreck has failed to return, and the wreck has been declared off-limits ever since. A plan to obliterate the wreck from orbit is still under consideration.
Note from Inquisitor Veranus (Ordo Xeno. Currently MIA in the Eye of Terror): Mechanicus claims to have built the facility in M35. Evidence found to the contrary. Site existed even before Great Crusade. Many sections off-limits. Mechanicus claims they were abandoned during occupation, but metallurgical analysis suggest Xenos origin. Will visit again after Eye of Terror mission.
The Rezahan System
Rezahan is the Saint’s home system. After the liberation, it also became the Sector capital.
Rezahan V: The new capital of the Saint Cyr sector (after the destruction of former seat of government at Fusilier), Rezahan is a thriving world that is undergoing massive industrial expansion. Although formerly a largely agricultural world hosting only a few major hive cities, Rezahan’s population has increased almost tenfold due to development efforts by the Imperium and mass-migration by pilgrims. Nearly two hundred billion souls now call Rezahan home, and it is the sector’s center of both trade and industry. The planet’s current Governor is Martin Reyter, an extremely experienced administrator with over fifty years of experience.
Most of the Hive Cities reside in the main continent of Khorvare, which is now almost entirely covered by industrial sprawl. Although living conditions still remain fairly tolerable (thanks in part due to an active Ecclesiarchy dedicated to preserving the memory of Saint Cyr), many of the lower Hive levels are beginning to see the same kind of rampant crime that afflicts other similar worlds. At the very least there is now a very active black market and organized crime syndicate opposing the world’s Arbites, and rumors persist of more nefarious Chaos or mutant cults still surviving in the planet’s underworld.
The rest of the planet – composed largely of smaller islands or island chains – remain untouched by the world’s rapid industrialization. Many host peaceful shrines dedicated to Saint Cyr, and are popular tourist spots for high nobles who reside both within and outside of the sector. The most popular of these tourist islands is Martyr’s Rock, a small island where Saint Cyr was hanged by the Chaos Warlord Forrix Magnus. Forrix’s own broken corpse would later be displayed on this very same island after the liberation.
However, the largest of these islands, Ghorvare, is reserved exclusively for Imperial Guard use. It is home to a large command center and several off-world regiments, mainly Cadian units (99th, 101st, and 457th) shoring up the local PDF troops. Lord General DeTaw, supreme commander of all ground forces in the sector, maintains his main residence here, seeking to avoid getting involved in planetary politics. He is often represented instead by Commissar-General An Iglas, who can often be found at the governor’s palace at Khorvare.
Notes from Inquisitor Veranus: Islands are a decent place to retire. Have acquired one for future use. Also, found evidence the Commissar-General and the governor often share the same suite. Amusing.
Notes from Inquisitor Amara (Ordo Malleus, currently active and based in Rezahan V): It only looks like a decent place to live in because Ordo Xenos doesn’t have to deal with our worst nightmares given form. Also, DeTaw’s a senile fool. Iglas you can trust if the world is ever called to arms.
Rust: “Rust” is the unofficial name of Rezhan V’s only moon, a nickname it earned due to its rust-like color when seen from space. Unlike most moons, Rust has a viable atmosphere, and was turned into a small Forge World by the Adeptus Mechanicus sometime during the Great Crusade. It was known for producing small quantities of high-technology items, including plasma weaponry and power armor. After the sector fell under Chaos control, heretics took control of the Forge World and used its output to supply the Chaos Space Marines that were helping to hold the sector.
Rust was almost entirely destroyed during the Liberation. After the initial assault was turned back with heavy losses by Chaos Space Marine forces (suspected to belong to the insidious Alpha Legion), Von Graf ordered the entire moon to be destroyed from orbit. Twenty billion heretics and a thousand Chaos Space Marines were believed to have been destroyed during this operation.
Since the liberation, the Adeptus Mechanicus has been slowly rebuilding the Forge World under the energetic leadership of Magos Allister Benyon. About half of the Forge World has been rebuilt, although it still has difficulty reproducing the specialty items it was known for before the occupation. Rumors persist of Chaos survivors in the ruined sections of the moon that have yet to be rebuilt, albeit the Tech-Priests have denied all of these claims.
Notes from Inquisitor Veranus: Search for Felina Tar’chan shop in the Retalia District. Makes excellent plasma weapons.
Notes from Inquisitor Amara: Rust has convinced me that only men deserve to have intellect, not machines. Because men are squishier and easier to kill.
Fusilier System
A massive red star with a huge number of planets and planetoids orbiting it. It was formerly the Sector capital, but was largely devastated during the occupation. Von Graf’s Hope is the only planet in the system with a significant population still remaining.
Von Graf’s Hope (formerly Fusilier VI): The sector’s primary agricultural world, the planet is often simply called “Hope” by its residents. It is an enormous world that is about four times the size of Holy Terra, and nearly 90% of its land is arable year-round due to its unique climate, which is almost as good as that of a Paradise world. Its output is such that it can theoretically feed the entire sector and still have enough leftover for export, albeit currently few merchants are taking advantage of this enormous production thus far. Large scale mining and industrialization on Hope have been judged to be unfeasible, due to the lack of large metal deposits and the enormous cost of the losing the world’s food production.
The planet has a relatively small population of fifteen billion, with the governor being the retired Marshal von Graf. The PDF (Planetary Defense Force) mainly consists of armored and mechanized units well-suited for traversing the planet’s vast open fields. They had been recently reinforced by the 95th Pardus Super-Heavy Tank Regiment and the 77th Tallarn Armored Regiment, who are taking advantage of the planet’s vast open spaces for training and military exercises. Little Chaos presence is known to remain, as the cultists and Renegade Space Marines defending the planet (including the dreaded Predator tank ace Golmung) were surrounded and annihilated at the Battle of One Tree Hill, which is now part of the Pardus regiment’s firing range.
Martyred Shields (formerly Fusilier VII): The seventh planet from the star, this world is now home to the nearly extinct Silver Shield Space Marines Chapter. During the First Ishbal Offensive, the Silver Shields committed the fatal error of launching their own attack into the sector without proper Imperial Guard support. Although their forces were able to land at Fusilier VII and make rapid progress, they were undone when the Chaos battlefleet launched a surprise attack on the Silver Shield fleet, destroying or capturing all of their Battle Barges.
Trapped on the ground, the Silver Shields resolved to make a final stand against the forces of Chaos, only to be denied an honorable end by their hated enemy. Rather than suffering catastrophic losses on the ground, the Chaos fleet simply bombarded the Space Marines from orbit. Fusilier VII, once a thriving and technologically advanced world and the former capital of the sector, was reduced to a radioactive cinder. To top it all off, the Chaos fleet then made an audacious sortie towards the Peltast sector, the original home world of the Silver Shields. With the bulk of their forces lost at Fusilier, the garrison was quickly overwhelmed and the entire sector was depopulated. The Chapter Master himself, Perdiccas, was captured, tortured, and executed by the Chaos troops. His body remains missing to this day.
For years, it was believed that this was the final chapter in the story of the Silver Shields. However, after the liberation, it was discovered that Fusilier VII had not been completely denuded of human life. Several million citizens and fourteen Silver Shields (including the Chief Apothecary) had survived the catastrophe, largely by taking shelter in underground bunkers that somehow survived the bombardment.
Today, Fusilier VII is now known as the world of “The Martyred Shields”. Radiation levels have now dropped to a level tolerable to human life, but the planet is still a harsh place to live. The hundred million or so citizens living on the planet survive mainly by subsistence farming and salvaging materials from the planet’s once glorious civilization. Most citizens fall under the rule of strong-armed warlords, who in turn have sworn fealty to the surviving Silver Shields in a rough form of feudalism. The warlords provide the Silver Shields with warriors that serve as a recruitment pool, allowing the dying Chapter to slowly increase its numbers using gene-seed saved by the Chief Apothecary. So far this approach has met with some success, and in addition to the fourteen survivors, there are now some fifty Scout recruits serving with the Silver Shields.
Note from Inquisitor Amara: I don’t trust the Shields.
Note from Inquisitor Galahan (Ordo Hereticus, active and based in Von Graf’s Hope): That’s because Amara doesn’t trust anyone. The Shields are alright. They’ve accompanied me on some of my mission around the Fusilier system.
Crystal Spring (Fusilier Asteroid 031): A frozen ball of ice, Crystal Spring holds vast deposits of unusually pure ice, which is mined and converted into liquid water used to supply the burgeoning Hives on Saint Cyr prime. Due to increases in demand and output, it is estimated that the reserves at Crystal Spring will be exhausted within fifty years. Due to its strategic importance, the mining facility’s garrison has also steadily grown since the liberation. Some three hundred Valhallans (survivors of the 1001st Valhallan Tundra Wolves) keep watch over a population of twenty thousand, supported by several orbital defense platforms.
Note from Inquisitor Galahan: Crystal Springs is but one of nearly fifty major habited planetoids and asteroids orbiting the Fusilier star. Most of them have been host to some kind of Chaos cult – I’ve been to Crystal Springs three times, and each visit I’ve had to wipe out at least one cult.
Alpha Outpost (Fusilier Asteroid 166): A Chaos listening post defended by several Alpha Legion Marines. It was destroyed from orbit during the third Ishbal Offensive after the outpost repulsed an attack by an entire company of drop troops. The ruins of the outpost remain unexplored. Several other moons in the sector contain similarly dead outposts.
Note from Inquisitor Galahan: I sent a Harakoni platoon down that outpost. They didn’t come back. I don’t plan to send any more.
Pebbles (Fusilier Planetoid 00): An airless moon with large gem deposits, it is now home to a small colony of about ten thousand prospectors. Although mining gems is a highly lucrative business, many of the prospectors remain destitute due to the high cost of shipping in vital supplies of food, water, and oxygen to the colony. Other “mining moons” also exist, albeit these are in an even worse financial shape compared to Pebbles.
Note from Inquisitor Galahan: It’s a great place to get a diamond ring for the third wife.
Bant (Fusilier Planetoid XX): Bant holds the honor of being the only inhabited celestial body in the sector never to fall under Chaos occupation. Home to some five million citizens, Bant was spared the wrath of Chaos due to its strategic unimportance. According to Ecclessiarchy records, the citizens of Bant live in a feudal, pre-gunpowder society practicing a rough form of the Imperial Cult. Travel to Bant is very difficult and dangerous, due to several asteroid fields around Ishbal VIII and strong gravitational currents in the area. The system has been declared off-limits to outsiders by the Inquisition and only specialist craft are able to navigate to this planetoid.
Note from Inquisitor Galahan: For some reason or another even _I_ am not allowed to travel to Bant. Only Amara was ever allowed to go there, and when I asked her about it she shot me in the leg “As a warning”. The wound took three weeks to heal! Why anyone would want to go to that backwater world is beyond me. It’s practically suicide to try and travel there anyway!
Note from Inquisitor Amara: Do not ask anything about Bant. Do not attempt to travel to Bant. And I am shooting Galahan’s other leg the next time I see him because he’s such a gakking idiot.
Note from Interrogator Yazmine: I have no idea what the fuss over Bant is about. I will note though, that Amara and Galahan were briefly married before separating several years ago, so this may just be Amara being petty.
A Brief History of the Saint Cyr Sector
The campaign takes place in the “Saint Cyr” sector (formerly known as the Ishbal Sector), in Segmentum Obscuras. It is a sector only recently liberated from the iron grip of Chaos.
The entire sector had been under Chaos occupation for over two hundred years, resisting numerous efforts by the Imperium to reclaim them. Over a hundred Imperial Guard regiments, two Imperial Navy battle squadrons, and even an entire chapter of Space Marines had been lost in four separate and equally fruitless offensives against the Chaos forces during these two dark centuries.
All this changed five decades ago, when a man named Cyr Thorne sparked a rebellion amongst the common people of Ishbal. With suicidal bravery, they began to attack the Chaos forces occupying their homeland. Although billions of lives would be lost (and Cyr himself would be martyred), the rebellion weakened the grip of the Chaos forces in the sector.
This allowed an Imperial battlegroup under the command of Grand Marshal von Graf to establish a foothold in the sector, liberating the agricultural world of Fusilier VI (henceforth renamed Von Graf’s Hope). At the same time, a squadron of Imperial frigates under the command of Captain (later Admiral) von Trump attacked and destroyed the Chaos fleet (including the hitherto undefeated battleship No Quarter Given) while it was still stranded in port, crippled by a lack of supplies due to the rebellion. Though it would take ten more years and the active support of the sector-wide rebellion, von Graf’s offensive finally liberated the Ishbal sector, which was henceforth renamed “Saint Cyr” in honor of its fallen martyr.
Since then, the sector has experienced great prosperity. Funds and resources have flowed from Holy Terra, allowing the reconstruction of numerous worlds, particularly in the new sector capital. Pilgrims have begun to flock at the site of Saint Cyr’s martyrdom, where many claim to have experienced miraculous healing thanks to the power of the Emperor.
Still, scattered cults of Chaos worshippers are known to have survived. It is also rumored that Inquisitors and Rogue Traders are combing buildings once occupied by the planet’s Chaos Champions, hoping to find artifacts of great power to use against the archenemy. Even the Imperial Guard is taking interest in the sector, seeing it as a potential staging area for more reinforcements bound for Cadia. In addition to the PDF and twelve Cyrian Regiments, seven “off-world” regiments have reinforced the sector, notably the elite 776th Elysians and the 95th Pardus Super-Heavy Tank Regiment.
Notable Systems & Planets in the Sector
The Dantrian System
Dantrian is an almost dead star, producing only minimal amounts of heat and light. It would have been completely unremarkable if not for the “The Three Sisters”
The Three Sisters: These are three small “sister” planets orbiting each other in a unique configuration, they are often considered to be one inseparable entity by both Imperial scribes and the common people alike. At the center of the three planet’s orbits is a stable Lagrange point – a point where the gravitational effects of all celestial bodies cancel each other out – making it an ideal site for a space shipyard. Before the Chaos occupation, it was the site of a major Mechanicus facility. However, since the liberation the facility has fallen under the control of the Order of the Martyred Rose (represented by Canoness Ayala), who are using the facility to construct and refit powerful craft for the Ecclesiarchy. The Tech-Priests however, have been lobbying to get control of the facility back, as the bulk of the shipyard’s residents are from the Mechanicus.
The Sisters Shipyard is an immense facility and is almost a planet on its own right, with a workforce of nearly five hundred million. The three surrounding planets are themselves mostly airless rocks, but they also hold numerous space defense batteries and military garrisons to help defend the shipyard. There are also vast underground stores for food, weapons, and ammunition to supply the shipyard in case of a siege. The 776th Elysians and the untried 544th Harakoni are stationed here, along with several squads of Celestian Battle Sisters. The Saint Cyr battle squadron, including the battleship Tromp’s Victory, is also home-ported here.
There are no known Chaos forces remaining in the area, albeit the wreck of the No Quarter Given remains un-salvaged on the surface of Dantrian III. An Elysian landing party sent to investigate the wreck has failed to return, and the wreck has been declared off-limits ever since. A plan to obliterate the wreck from orbit is still under consideration.
Note from Inquisitor Veranus (Ordo Xeno. Currently MIA in the Eye of Terror): Mechanicus claims to have built the facility in M35. Evidence found to the contrary. Site existed even before Great Crusade. Many sections off-limits. Mechanicus claims they were abandoned during occupation, but metallurgical analysis suggest Xenos origin. Will visit again after Eye of Terror mission.
The Rezahan System
Rezahan is the Saint’s home system. After the liberation, it also became the Sector capital.
Rezahan V: The new capital of the Saint Cyr sector (after the destruction of former seat of government at Fusilier), Rezahan is a thriving world that is undergoing massive industrial expansion. Although formerly a largely agricultural world hosting only a few major hive cities, Rezahan’s population has increased almost tenfold due to development efforts by the Imperium and mass-migration by pilgrims. Nearly two hundred billion souls now call Rezahan home, and it is the sector’s center of both trade and industry. The planet’s current Governor is Martin Reyter, an extremely experienced administrator with over fifty years of experience.
Most of the Hive Cities reside in the main continent of Khorvare, which is now almost entirely covered by industrial sprawl. Although living conditions still remain fairly tolerable (thanks in part due to an active Ecclesiarchy dedicated to preserving the memory of Saint Cyr), many of the lower Hive levels are beginning to see the same kind of rampant crime that afflicts other similar worlds. At the very least there is now a very active black market and organized crime syndicate opposing the world’s Arbites, and rumors persist of more nefarious Chaos or mutant cults still surviving in the planet’s underworld.
The rest of the planet – composed largely of smaller islands or island chains – remain untouched by the world’s rapid industrialization. Many host peaceful shrines dedicated to Saint Cyr, and are popular tourist spots for high nobles who reside both within and outside of the sector. The most popular of these tourist islands is Martyr’s Rock, a small island where Saint Cyr was hanged by the Chaos Warlord Forrix Magnus. Forrix’s own broken corpse would later be displayed on this very same island after the liberation.
However, the largest of these islands, Ghorvare, is reserved exclusively for Imperial Guard use. It is home to a large command center and several off-world regiments, mainly Cadian units (99th, 101st, and 457th) shoring up the local PDF troops. Lord General DeTaw, supreme commander of all ground forces in the sector, maintains his main residence here, seeking to avoid getting involved in planetary politics. He is often represented instead by Commissar-General An Iglas, who can often be found at the governor’s palace at Khorvare.
Notes from Inquisitor Veranus: Islands are a decent place to retire. Have acquired one for future use. Also, found evidence the Commissar-General and the governor often share the same suite. Amusing.
Notes from Inquisitor Amara (Ordo Malleus, currently active and based in Rezahan V): It only looks like a decent place to live in because Ordo Xenos doesn’t have to deal with our worst nightmares given form. Also, DeTaw’s a senile fool. Iglas you can trust if the world is ever called to arms.
Rust: “Rust” is the unofficial name of Rezhan V’s only moon, a nickname it earned due to its rust-like color when seen from space. Unlike most moons, Rust has a viable atmosphere, and was turned into a small Forge World by the Adeptus Mechanicus sometime during the Great Crusade. It was known for producing small quantities of high-technology items, including plasma weaponry and power armor. After the sector fell under Chaos control, heretics took control of the Forge World and used its output to supply the Chaos Space Marines that were helping to hold the sector.
Rust was almost entirely destroyed during the Liberation. After the initial assault was turned back with heavy losses by Chaos Space Marine forces (suspected to belong to the insidious Alpha Legion), Von Graf ordered the entire moon to be destroyed from orbit. Twenty billion heretics and a thousand Chaos Space Marines were believed to have been destroyed during this operation.
Since the liberation, the Adeptus Mechanicus has been slowly rebuilding the Forge World under the energetic leadership of Magos Allister Benyon. About half of the Forge World has been rebuilt, although it still has difficulty reproducing the specialty items it was known for before the occupation. Rumors persist of Chaos survivors in the ruined sections of the moon that have yet to be rebuilt, albeit the Tech-Priests have denied all of these claims.
Notes from Inquisitor Veranus: Search for Felina Tar’chan shop in the Retalia District. Makes excellent plasma weapons.
Notes from Inquisitor Amara: Rust has convinced me that only men deserve to have intellect, not machines. Because men are squishier and easier to kill.
Fusilier System
A massive red star with a huge number of planets and planetoids orbiting it. It was formerly the Sector capital, but was largely devastated during the occupation. Von Graf’s Hope is the only planet in the system with a significant population still remaining.
Von Graf’s Hope (formerly Fusilier VI): The sector’s primary agricultural world, the planet is often simply called “Hope” by its residents. It is an enormous world that is about four times the size of Holy Terra, and nearly 90% of its land is arable year-round due to its unique climate, which is almost as good as that of a Paradise world. Its output is such that it can theoretically feed the entire sector and still have enough leftover for export, albeit currently few merchants are taking advantage of this enormous production thus far. Large scale mining and industrialization on Hope have been judged to be unfeasible, due to the lack of large metal deposits and the enormous cost of the losing the world’s food production.
The planet has a relatively small population of fifteen billion, with the governor being the retired Marshal von Graf. The PDF (Planetary Defense Force) mainly consists of armored and mechanized units well-suited for traversing the planet’s vast open fields. They had been recently reinforced by the 95th Pardus Super-Heavy Tank Regiment and the 77th Tallarn Armored Regiment, who are taking advantage of the planet’s vast open spaces for training and military exercises. Little Chaos presence is known to remain, as the cultists and Renegade Space Marines defending the planet (including the dreaded Predator tank ace Golmung) were surrounded and annihilated at the Battle of One Tree Hill, which is now part of the Pardus regiment’s firing range.
Martyred Shields (formerly Fusilier VII): The seventh planet from the star, this world is now home to the nearly extinct Silver Shield Space Marines Chapter. During the First Ishbal Offensive, the Silver Shields committed the fatal error of launching their own attack into the sector without proper Imperial Guard support. Although their forces were able to land at Fusilier VII and make rapid progress, they were undone when the Chaos battlefleet launched a surprise attack on the Silver Shield fleet, destroying or capturing all of their Battle Barges.
Trapped on the ground, the Silver Shields resolved to make a final stand against the forces of Chaos, only to be denied an honorable end by their hated enemy. Rather than suffering catastrophic losses on the ground, the Chaos fleet simply bombarded the Space Marines from orbit. Fusilier VII, once a thriving and technologically advanced world and the former capital of the sector, was reduced to a radioactive cinder. To top it all off, the Chaos fleet then made an audacious sortie towards the Peltast sector, the original home world of the Silver Shields. With the bulk of their forces lost at Fusilier, the garrison was quickly overwhelmed and the entire sector was depopulated. The Chapter Master himself, Perdiccas, was captured, tortured, and executed by the Chaos troops. His body remains missing to this day.
For years, it was believed that this was the final chapter in the story of the Silver Shields. However, after the liberation, it was discovered that Fusilier VII had not been completely denuded of human life. Several million citizens and fourteen Silver Shields (including the Chief Apothecary) had survived the catastrophe, largely by taking shelter in underground bunkers that somehow survived the bombardment.
Today, Fusilier VII is now known as the world of “The Martyred Shields”. Radiation levels have now dropped to a level tolerable to human life, but the planet is still a harsh place to live. The hundred million or so citizens living on the planet survive mainly by subsistence farming and salvaging materials from the planet’s once glorious civilization. Most citizens fall under the rule of strong-armed warlords, who in turn have sworn fealty to the surviving Silver Shields in a rough form of feudalism. The warlords provide the Silver Shields with warriors that serve as a recruitment pool, allowing the dying Chapter to slowly increase its numbers using gene-seed saved by the Chief Apothecary. So far this approach has met with some success, and in addition to the fourteen survivors, there are now some fifty Scout recruits serving with the Silver Shields.
Note from Inquisitor Amara: I don’t trust the Shields.
Note from Inquisitor Galahan (Ordo Hereticus, active and based in Von Graf’s Hope): That’s because Amara doesn’t trust anyone. The Shields are alright. They’ve accompanied me on some of my mission around the Fusilier system.
Crystal Spring (Fusilier Asteroid 031): A frozen ball of ice, Crystal Spring holds vast deposits of unusually pure ice, which is mined and converted into liquid water used to supply the burgeoning Hives on Saint Cyr prime. Due to increases in demand and output, it is estimated that the reserves at Crystal Spring will be exhausted within fifty years. Due to its strategic importance, the mining facility’s garrison has also steadily grown since the liberation. Some three hundred Valhallans (survivors of the 1001st Valhallan Tundra Wolves) keep watch over a population of twenty thousand, supported by several orbital defense platforms.
Note from Inquisitor Galahan: Crystal Springs is but one of nearly fifty major habited planetoids and asteroids orbiting the Fusilier star. Most of them have been host to some kind of Chaos cult – I’ve been to Crystal Springs three times, and each visit I’ve had to wipe out at least one cult.
Alpha Outpost (Fusilier Asteroid 166): A Chaos listening post defended by several Alpha Legion Marines. It was destroyed from orbit during the third Ishbal Offensive after the outpost repulsed an attack by an entire company of drop troops. The ruins of the outpost remain unexplored. Several other moons in the sector contain similarly dead outposts.
Note from Inquisitor Galahan: I sent a Harakoni platoon down that outpost. They didn’t come back. I don’t plan to send any more.
Pebbles (Fusilier Planetoid 00): An airless moon with large gem deposits, it is now home to a small colony of about ten thousand prospectors. Although mining gems is a highly lucrative business, many of the prospectors remain destitute due to the high cost of shipping in vital supplies of food, water, and oxygen to the colony. Other “mining moons” also exist, albeit these are in an even worse financial shape compared to Pebbles.
Note from Inquisitor Galahan: It’s a great place to get a diamond ring for the third wife.
Bant (Fusilier Planetoid XX): Bant holds the honor of being the only inhabited celestial body in the sector never to fall under Chaos occupation. Home to some five million citizens, Bant was spared the wrath of Chaos due to its strategic unimportance. According to Ecclessiarchy records, the citizens of Bant live in a feudal, pre-gunpowder society practicing a rough form of the Imperial Cult. Travel to Bant is very difficult and dangerous, due to several asteroid fields around Ishbal VIII and strong gravitational currents in the area. The system has been declared off-limits to outsiders by the Inquisition and only specialist craft are able to navigate to this planetoid.
Note from Inquisitor Galahan: For some reason or another even _I_ am not allowed to travel to Bant. Only Amara was ever allowed to go there, and when I asked her about it she shot me in the leg “As a warning”. The wound took three weeks to heal! Why anyone would want to go to that backwater world is beyond me. It’s practically suicide to try and travel there anyway!
Note from Inquisitor Amara: Do not ask anything about Bant. Do not attempt to travel to Bant. And I am shooting Galahan’s other leg the next time I see him because he’s such a gakking idiot.
Note from Interrogator Yazmine: I have no idea what the fuss over Bant is about. I will note though, that Amara and Galahan were briefly married before separating several years ago, so this may just be Amara being petty.