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Belater Segmentum: Ultima Sector: Verana Sub-Sector: Cob System: Belatera Population: 4.28 billion Tithe: Exactis Particular Class: Industrial World Belater is an industrial world located within the Verana Sector. Its 4 billion inhabitants slave away in gargantuan factories supplying war materials to the wider sector and beyond. Crowded slums dominate the cities, their weary inhabitants turning to alco-synth and illicit entertainments for distraction. The elite live within sheltered spires. In Verdan, the planetary capital, these towers rise up in the centre of the city, together with cathedrals and the great, almost pyramidal, Ministry buildings. This gleaming city within a city stretches high into the sky, looming over the untold millions beneath. There are seven major cities dotted across Belater containing over 90% of the population. Much of the rest of the planet is arid wilderness owing to intense pollution. These deserts are amazingly still home to various nomadic tribes and warbands who scavenge and raid to survive. Many amongst their number are what is classified as “asocial” by the government; mutants, heretics, dissidents and criminals fleeing from the authoritarian rule of urban society. Frontier settlements, usually established to mine and drill for resources, are regular targets for these renegades and bandits. The government of Belater is ostensibly democratic. A parliament known as the Chamber is elected by the upper-classes to oversee the planet, however power truly lies with the Central Council. A cabinet chosen by the Chamber, in reality it is controlled by the military and bureaucracy. At its head the Imperial governor, or Premier-General, has been a high ranking officer since the title’s creation, the Chamber little more than a rubber-stamp to their commands. Regardless they are not untouchable. Palace coups, assassinations and even proletarian riots have been known to end a Premier-General’s term in office prematurely. As such a streak of populism is always a desirable quality in Belaterian politics. Bread and circuses are regularly lavished on the Verdan ‘mob’ in the form of extra rations and blood sports. At the same time a totalitarian state keeps a close eye on the populace. While ‘lesser’ criminal enterprises are often overlooked or indeed quietly endorsed by those at the top, an unguarded comment in the ration queue or a dissenting opinion told in confidence will often lead to a visit from agents of the Special Directorate. Those “taken for questioning” are rarely seen again. The planet’s particular system of government stems from the Belaterian Civil War. Then a hereditary monarchy, the ruling nobility had fled from the planet centuries earlier to escape its inhospitable climate, settling on Belater’s largest moon Floriana. A lush, agricultural world supplying Belater with the majority of its food, soon grand estates and palaces were constructed to house the lords, first amongst them the Grand Prince of the House Vyon. By 421.M40 this title was held by Alfons XIV. Remembered by the (admittedly biased) history books as a dull-minded, corpulent figure, he ultimately was little different from a succession of absentee princes, more interested in feasts and games than in running a planet of billions. Regardless Alfons was in no doubt as to his Throne-given right to rule without question. In that momentous year, poor harvests on Floriana has led already meagre rations on Belater to be reduced further. As the people stewed, rumour spread that Alfons had halted a food shipment destined for their world to supply a lavish summer banquet. It proved the spark needed to inflame the downtrodden population into open revolution. As entire cities rose up, the Grand Prince ordered the planetary defence forces, the Gendarme, to shoot the rioters in Verdan. Most gendarmes were lower-class conscripts, poorly paid and disgruntled themselves. In the moment they refused to fire on their fellow proles. General uprising combined with military mutiny confirmed in the minds of various younger officers of the need to lead the public tide or be consumed by it. Led by Brigadier Fernand Torayne, the cabal overthrew their superiors in Verdan and declared the army for the people. This didn’t prove entirely true. The cities of Ximes and Brennus in the south declared for the Grand Prince, while elsewhere Gendarme units and the greater population turned on themselves, divided by civil war. The scattered mining communities of Murat, Belater’s second moon, fell to the cabal without a shot, the commandant a trusted acolyte of Torayne. Revolution even briefly spread to Floriana with peasants storming the palaces of the nobility before being crushed by the Grand Prince’s Household Guard. Torayne knew that the seizure of Floriana was critical. Without imports from the garden moon Belater would starve. As royalist forces marched north towards Verdan, the General led a motley armada of sub-warp transports carrying six regiments towards Alfons’ domain. Though the pastoral world had only limited defences, the derelict invasion fleet still suffered serious losses as the rebels struggled to establish a bridgehead. Slowly but surely they pushed the Household Guard back to the Vyon Palace. Though appearing to be simply a grandiose baroque mansion, the Palace was a veritable fortress. The rebels paid dearly in assault after assault on the hidden pillboxes, minefields and kill zones of the picturesque estate. After weeks of brutal siege warfare, Torayne’s gendarmes finally broke into the palace interior and overwhelmed the defenders. Alongside many of his inner circle Grand Prince Alfons XIV had committed suicide rather than face the ‘mob’. Hopes this would end the Civil War proved misguided. In Torayne’s absence the citizen militias of Verdan and neighbouring rebel cities had paid a high price to hold the royalist forces along the Majanon Front. A chill lifeless moor, the region had become a warren of trenches as the two sides attempted to grind each other down. The death of the grand prince and capture of the Floriana breadbasket saw several contested cities like Mon-Saint and Jacoban finally succumb to the rebels. However the core royalist cities of Ximes and Brennus remained, with Alfons’ imbecilic nephew being declared Leo XXI in 423.M40. The war dragged on for several years, the ‘rebels’ unable to penetrate the southern royalist fortifications. In 426.M40 Ottokar Vesp, an industrial chemist drafted into the war effort, developed a deadly toxin known as vespene gas. It was quickly weaponised to brutal effect. The Brigadier’s superiority in weapons, men and industry was made plain during the summer operations of the following year. The horrors of vespene were made clear to royalist troops as vast artillery bombardments of shells filled with poison gas rained down upon them. Corrosive, asphyxiating and yet quick to disperse, rebel tanks and soldiers often advanced unopposed for miles past the blistered and contorted remains of their enemies. The gas was also employed in terror bombings against royalist cities and towns. The bodies of the dead piled in the streets, so much so that entire units had to be reassigned solely to the disposal of corpses. Within four months the royalists collapsed, the Vespene Offensive having claimed millions of lives. Brigadier Torayne was now the undisputed ruler of Belater. The Brigadier’s military cabal, wary not only of royalist sympathisers but the radicalism of the lower-classes, made alliance with the only force on Belater that could appeal to and suffocate both, the Church. Members of the Ministorum had been divided by the conflict just like the rest of the planet though royalism had certainly dominated. The Planetary Pontifex had even died with the Exalted Blade of St. Rufon in hand during the last stand at Ximes. Opportunism and genuine fear of the masses saw monarchist pretensions quickly disappear amongst the Belaterian clergy. The two established an authoritarian regime, with supposed royalist agents and radical revolutionaries being burned in public squares alongside heretics and mutants, as secret police infiltrated every section of society. The velvet glove to this iron fist came in the form of grand spectacle. Holy festivals, military parades and the re-opening of the combat arenas, suppressed by Alfons’ great-grandfather Filup the Dour. It took centuries for the planet to truly recover from the destruction of the civil war. The city of Brennus, its cathedral-factories once the engine of the royalist war effort, remains a half abandoned ruin, a shell of its Vyon-era glory. However the conflict had unexpected boons, at least for the new ruling elite. The demands of war and mass mobilisation of the population had expanded Belaterian industry only further. The Gendarmes had conscripted much of the adult population whether as front line troops or regimented labour in factories and mines. This continued in peace with all able bodied men and women serving for five years. Though often restricted to garrison duty and labour projects, the planetary defence forces have been blooded countless times fighting desert raiders, the chameleonic xenos of Murat and occasionally rioting proles. However unlike the discontented draftees of the former monarchy, the reformed Gendarme instil a draconian discipline centred around total obedience to the God-Emperor and the Premier-General. This creates not only committed soldiers but dutiful civilians when their terms of service end. The militarisation of Belater society and news of the revolution saw Sector Command not only endorse the new regime but order the raising of twenty regiments for the Astra Militarum from the populace. As the dark days of the 41st millennium encroached, troops not industry proved Belater’s most prized export. The new regiments were dubbed the Belaterian Fusiliers, named after the distinctive fusil pattern lasguns produced on the planet. Owing to Belater’s vast manufactories Fusilier regiments are often mechanised and known for their large compliments of mobile artillery. There are at least a dozen armoured regiments, however the “Wolfhound” 9th Armoured are currently unaccounted for, presumed dead during the fighting around the Cadian Gate. However the Belaterians have primarily earned their reputation as specialists in urban and trench warfare. Elite units known simply as Hunters often form the tip of the spear. Hand-picked from veterans of countless battles, the Hunters are heavily armed and armoured to mix with the enemy at close-quarters. Common weapons favoured by the Hunters include knives, axes, shock-mauls, shotguns, flamers, demolition charges and vespene gas. The infamous toxin has been exported for service across Verana Sector and is seen as just another weapon in the arsenal of the Fusiliers, with vespene bombardments often preceding a Belaterian assault commonly led by a troop of Vespene Vipers, a converted Bane Wolf design tailored towards their poison of choice. ___________________________ Some scribblings about a regiment I'm hoping to use to get back into 40k. I wanted something that used the Cadians in the name of ease and money but had at least a little individual character. As such they will have Adrian helmets, normal fatigue arms and hopefully some lasgun stand-ins that have some resemblance to a bolt-action rifle. Excusing the crudeness this was my initial idea for general uniforms. Perhaps kepies for officers though might be going too far. Intend to have a muddy look with chipped paint on the armour, and heavy weapons mounted in suitably WWI-WWII gun carriages. Shame about the Rough Riders... http://i1307.photobucket.com/albums/s599/pwilson89/imperialguard1_zpsf2fuwolm.jpg